Future fuels conundrum: crewing, insurance, funding
March 31, 2026By Seawork Press GSFW FP/MJ
Workboat Association
Diverse Marine
Get set for Workboat 2050
Chartwell Marine
Damen
KVNR
Ocealis
UK P&I Club
There’s little confusion about one thing in today’s workboat industry: that there is confusion about what the future for fuels looks like.
This affects all areas, not least the willingness of banks to finance vessel projects, and not everyone is going in the same direction. The Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners (KVNR), for example, as part of its Maritime Master Plan, aims to have 30 emissions-free vessels by 2030 with a focus on methanol, LNG with carbon capture, and in two months’ time, ammonia, said Niels van de Minkelis, director – Safety & Environment with the KVNR.
Speaking on a panel at the Get Set for Workboat 2050 Seawork conference in Rotterdam last week, Eomer Zwijnenberg, Director Corporate Lending Wholesale - Energy Transition and Circularity at Rabobank, admitted that ‘the green element poses a complexity’.
“We are there to support,” he told delegates. “The main challenge for financiers is when there’s a request to finance a certain vessel – how do we know in three or four years’ time that it’s still a relevant vessel?
“We recently closed the financing for a methanol-ready vessel that the technology was so new that the yard didn’t know what to do with it. Insurers, regulators, yards, ship owners – cooperation among them is important.”
Annet Koster, managing director of the KVNR, said banks and financiers were having a hard time.
“Banks want to finance but at the same time green vessels are innovative and they are a bit scary because we don’t know what the future will bring,” she said. “That’s the Catch 22 in shipping.”
“We have to build the greenest vessel we can,” said Diverse Marine Customer Finance director Peter Curtis. “We would like to build more hybrids but at the moment we can’t – with CTVs the infrastructure isn’t there, battery technology is too heavy. But they are as green as they can be and the funding is for the long term.”
Chartwell Marine managing director Andy Page, moderating the session, asked Eomer Zwijnenberg what would interest a bank if it were considering funding.
“We look at a company’s decarbonisation pathway,” Zwijnenberg said. “It’s more about what is the end goal.”
John Peacock, co-founder and CEO of Ocealis, the digital vessel management company, asked the question on most delegates’ minds.
“All this talk about methanol, hydrogen – if I want to switch my boat tomorrow to methanol, where do I get my methanol from? It’s a much bigger picture for the industry to consider.”
Insurance and crewing
Tied to financing is the insurance question – and insurers are having difficulties assessing risk with barely any experience to work with.
“If we see over the next few years more hybrid and green vessels, more damages and losses etc, then we will factor that into our pricing. We don’t have that data yet. It’s a long road and a vicious circle, and we are watching,” said John Hearn, senior underwriter with the UK P&I Club.
With new fuels being so new, one of the major aspects that banks and insurers will look at is how well trained the crew is – if at all. And as one delegate said on the sidelines – what crew?
“What it comes down to is what happens when the crew uses these technologies,” said Hearn. “More than 90 per cent of claims are human error,” said Hearn. “We have to factor everything into our pricing, but we don’t have enough data yet. We want our clients to operate without any losses, and the quality of the crew is of very high importance.
“I look at workboats as very hard-working boats, from the collision aspect, the dock damage aspect, but we need to make sure the crew is trained.”
Polestar Publishing is a Dutch publisher of maritime, logistics and industrial educational materials. Wencke Boerrigter, who owns the company, said some crew members were simply using YouTube for their training.
“As a publisher we are re-developing how we disseminate this information,” she said. “We are doing more and more digitally. There’s a huge gap in the curriculum of seafarers.
“Every tug operator has its own standard. A member of crew can come on board and learn from a captain that’s been around for 20 years. Mistakes are being passed down but we try to make sure the same basic knowledge is the same all over the sector.”
This affects all areas, not least the willingness of banks to finance vessel projects, and not everyone is going in the same direction. The Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners (KVNR), for example, as part of its Maritime Master Plan, aims to have 30 emissions-free vessels by 2030 with a focus on methanol, LNG with carbon capture, and in two months’ time, ammonia, said Niels van de Minkelis, director – Safety & Environment with the KVNR.
Speaking on a panel at the Get Set for Workboat 2050 Seawork conference in Rotterdam last week, Eomer Zwijnenberg, Director Corporate Lending Wholesale - Energy Transition and Circularity at Rabobank, admitted that ‘the green element poses a complexity’.
“We are there to support,” he told delegates. “The main challenge for financiers is when there’s a request to finance a certain vessel – how do we know in three or four years’ time that it’s still a relevant vessel?
“We recently closed the financing for a methanol-ready vessel that the technology was so new that the yard didn’t know what to do with it. Insurers, regulators, yards, ship owners – cooperation among them is important.”
Annet Koster, managing director of the KVNR, said banks and financiers were having a hard time.
“Banks want to finance but at the same time green vessels are innovative and they are a bit scary because we don’t know what the future will bring,” she said. “That’s the Catch 22 in shipping.”
“We have to build the greenest vessel we can,” said Diverse Marine Customer Finance director Peter Curtis. “We would like to build more hybrids but at the moment we can’t – with CTVs the infrastructure isn’t there, battery technology is too heavy. But they are as green as they can be and the funding is for the long term.”
Chartwell Marine managing director Andy Page, moderating the session, asked Eomer Zwijnenberg what would interest a bank if it were considering funding.
“We look at a company’s decarbonisation pathway,” Zwijnenberg said. “It’s more about what is the end goal.”
John Peacock, co-founder and CEO of Ocealis, the digital vessel management company, asked the question on most delegates’ minds.
“All this talk about methanol, hydrogen – if I want to switch my boat tomorrow to methanol, where do I get my methanol from? It’s a much bigger picture for the industry to consider.”
Insurance and crewing
Tied to financing is the insurance question – and insurers are having difficulties assessing risk with barely any experience to work with.
“If we see over the next few years more hybrid and green vessels, more damages and losses etc, then we will factor that into our pricing. We don’t have that data yet. It’s a long road and a vicious circle, and we are watching,” said John Hearn, senior underwriter with the UK P&I Club.
With new fuels being so new, one of the major aspects that banks and insurers will look at is how well trained the crew is – if at all. And as one delegate said on the sidelines – what crew?
“What it comes down to is what happens when the crew uses these technologies,” said Hearn. “More than 90 per cent of claims are human error,” said Hearn. “We have to factor everything into our pricing, but we don’t have enough data yet. We want our clients to operate without any losses, and the quality of the crew is of very high importance.
“I look at workboats as very hard-working boats, from the collision aspect, the dock damage aspect, but we need to make sure the crew is trained.”
Polestar Publishing is a Dutch publisher of maritime, logistics and industrial educational materials. Wencke Boerrigter, who owns the company, said some crew members were simply using YouTube for their training.
“As a publisher we are re-developing how we disseminate this information,” she said. “We are doing more and more digitally. There’s a huge gap in the curriculum of seafarers.
“Every tug operator has its own standard. A member of crew can come on board and learn from a captain that’s been around for 20 years. Mistakes are being passed down but we try to make sure the same basic knowledge is the same all over the sector.”
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