Shipyard selection for the MANTA: the consultation process is underway

Behind these initials lies an essential milestone in the consultation process that will allow us to designate the shipyard that will build the MANTA: the Request for Interest that has been sent to a dozen carefully pre-selected shipyards. 

Over the last few months, The SeaCleaners has presented MANTA and the project to build the ocean cleaning vessel to several European and Mediterranean shipyards. 

Their enthusiastic reception has reinforced our conviction that the shipbuilding sector is now firmly committed to the ecological transition, to policies for reducing carbon footprints and marine pollution, and to the preservation of seas and rivers. It also emerged from our discussions that the construction of a high environmental performance ship like the MANTA is an attractive project for these shipyards, offering a high potential: positioning themselves firmly in a sector of the future, thanks to an emblematic, popular, ambitious environmental project with an international dimension. 

Through the RFI, the yards are invited not only to provide their technical, industrial and commercial references for this type of innovative project and to provide their financial track records, but also to become fully aware of the objectives and constraints of The SeaCleaners for the MANTA construction contract. 

The analysis of these data and this first series of exchanges will allow us to make a pre-selection before the end of the year, thanks to the support of our naval architect sponsor LMG-Marin France.  

In early 2023, the second stage will begin: the Request for Budgetary Proposal (RFBP). Shipyards will receive the simplified technical specifications for MANTA, as well as a set of blueprints, guidelines and drawings documenting the ship’s main systems and equipment and their layout. This intermediate stage of the consultation process will not only allow the selection of the last shipyards for the final consultation phase, but will also provide the budgetary data needed to finalise the financing plan for the MANTA Project. 

 The final stage of the consultation will be the Request for Proposals (RFP), which will be followed by clarification exchanges and then technical-commercial negotiations that should lead to the final selection of the shipyard that will build MANTA in early 2024. 

For this last phase of consultation, the complete technical specifications and plans of the MANTA will be submitted.  This exhaustive specification, because it provides all the necessary concrete elements, will be the indispensable working basis for the shipyards to establish a commercial offer and a costing that is as precise as possible.  

The consultation work with the shipyards that is starting with the RFI marks the beginning of a new era for MANTA: that of the realization of our flagship project. The result of 4 years of hard work and no less than 45,000 hours of study and development! It also gives us the opportunity, once again, to warmly thank all the sponsors and technical partners who are accompanying us in this extraordinary adventure to protect the ocean!