Thordon Bearings Wins the 2025 Motorship Award for its T-BOSS Ship Design

MARINE

12/2/20251 min read

Thordon Bearings has won the 2025 Motorship Award for T-BOSS, a ship design that replaces the traditional sterntube with a space allowing a seawater-lubricated bearing and seal arrangement to be inspected and maintained from inside the ship. The award was presented at the Motorship Propulsion & Future Fuels Conference in Hamburg, Germany, on 25 November, and recognizes innovative partnerships that result in low-emissions maritime solutions. T-BOSS — the Thordon–Blue Ocean Stern Space — was developed by a consortium of ABS, Thordon Bearings, Wärtsilä Shaft Line Solutions, CSSC-SDARI (Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute) and the National Technical University of Athens.

The design replaces the conventional sterntube and cooling tank with a dry chamber housing a single seawater-lubricated, non-metallic Thordon COMPAC bearing. Removing the sterntube and oil sealing system lowers shipbuilding costs and significantly reduces operating expenditure. The chamber is accessed through an opening in the bulkhead and is large enough for an engineer or surveyor to stand up in, allowing inspection and maintenance without withdrawing the shaft or drydocking the vessel — significantly cutting maintenance costs. A shorter shaftline also means more cargo capacity or engine-room space for a shaft generator, improving profitability while lowering fuel consumption and emissions per capacity tonne-mile for better EEDI ratings.

Using seawater as its lubricant, the COMPAC bearing eliminates the pollution risks and costs of emergency oil-seal repairs, and its lower friction delivers further fuel and emissions savings. "By combining the traditional principles of seawater lubrication with modern design, T-BOSS establishes a new solution to help ship owners and builders eliminate oil discharges into our oceans," said Martin Linder, Merchant Fleet Business Development Manager Northern Europe at Thordon Bearings. Operational data suggests the combined gains could exceed US$1 million over a ship's lifespan.