On 25 April 2008, the Scandlines shipping company transported a complete wind power installation from Rostock to Ventspils.
The crews of the two RoPax ferries “Ask” and “Urd” and the line management team responsible have already shown on a number of occasions that Scandlines is also capable of shipping very special cargo consignments on the Rostock-Ventspils service. In October 2007, for example, two tractor-trailer units, each 56 metres long and weighing 170 tons, were transported to Ventspils.
At 6 o’clock in the evening on 25 April 2008, an even bigger heavyweight embarked on the voyage to the Latvian port of Ventspils on board a Scandlines ferry.
A complete wind power installation was loaded onto the RoPax ship “Ask” on eight heavy load transporters and two trailers. The special vehicles, up to 44 metres long and 4.4 metres wide, from the company Köpke Schwertransporte together weighed a total of 370 tons. Loaded on the vehicles was a wind power installation from the company DeWind in Lübeck, broken down into its individual components. The installation will be set up close to the Latvian port of Liepaja.
After a crossing time of 27 hours, the “Ask” will reach the Port of Ventspils at 10 p.m. local time on 26 April. The heavy-load transport vehicles will then continue their journey to   Liepaja around 120 kilometres away.
With the shipping of this somewhat unusual consignment, Scandlines and its partners have once again proven their flexibility with regard to handling in the port as well as the deployment of tonnage. High service quality and the advantage of a direct highway link to the Port of Rostock make the Rostock-Ventspils route one of the most efficient services for the transportation of project cargo to the Baltic States.
Scandlines adapted its services on the Rostock-Ventspils route to the growing demand for sea transport back in the autumn of 2007, with the departure frequency and capacity on the line increased through the deployment of the FS “Fellow” as the third ship on this service. This means that Scandlines now provides the transport industry with departures between Germany and Latvia on a daily basis, except Mondays.