Tag Archives: Costa Concordia

Semi-submersible vessel to give Concordia a lift

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By Tom Stieghorst

*InsightOne of the more amazing sights when the space shuttle program was in its prime was the 83-ton shuttle atop a Boeing 747 being ferried from its landing field at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The shuttle needed an assist because, other than its launch and return from earth orbit, it could not fly on its own.

Something similar may be in store for the partly raised Costa Concordia cruise ship. The salvage team for the Concordia has secured an option to use the Dockwise Vanguard to transport Concordia, which would be a first for the world’s largest semi-submersible vessel.

Dockwise is a Dutch firm that specializes in semi-submersibles. The vessels fill their ballast tanks to sink below a cargo, and then expel water to float them on large, flat cargo decks.*TomStieghorst

The Dockwise approach offers time and energy savings over towing large loads. Yacht captains have been using the Dockwise for years to transport their boats on long-distance journeys, saving wear, tear and crew costs.

But Dockwise Vanguard was not built for small payloads like mega-yachts. It was built to transport marine oil- and gas-drilling rigs, such as the Chevron Corp.’s 53,000-ton Jack/St. Malo oil platform, which it ferried from South Korea to the Gulf of Mexico last year.

The Concordia would be a bigger bite. According to the salvage team, Concordia will weigh about 75,000 tons, or about 1.5 million pounds, once it is refloated this June.

Dockwise Vanguard can handle it. The 900-foot-long ship, which was delivered last year, has a rated capacity of 110,000 tons. Of course, such a unique vessel doesn’t come cheap. The salvage team has paid $30 million just to secure an option to use the Vanguard for the job.

Without it, the Concordia would be towed in the conventional manner to port. But the seaworthiness of a ship that has been lying on its side in the ocean for two years is an open question.

What would it look like? You can see an online animation by Boskalis, the Dutch parent company of Dockwise, which shows how the Concordia would be loaded on Vanguard.

For the cruise industry, it can’t happen too soon.

Costa Concordia refloating scheduled to happen in June

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By Tom Stieghorst

Concordia wreckItalian authorities and Costa Cruises executives held a briefing in Italy updating the progress on refloating the Costa Concordia.

The update comes a few days before the second anniversary of the partial sinking of the Costa ship.

Engineers pulled the Concordia upright last fall and are preparing to refloat the ship before towing it to port to be scrapped.

Project managers are targeting June to move the wreck from Giglio Island to an as-yet-unknown destination. Prior to that, they will attach another 19 sponsons to the hull.

The plan calls for sponsons to be fastened to the ship in April. Then water will be pumped out of the tank-like sponsons, providing buoyancy to raise the ship off its fabricated platform about 30 meters below the surface to a depth of about 18.5 meters.

A total of 2042.5 cubic meters of fuel and 240 cubic meters of sewage were removed from the ship last March, along with 240 tons of material from the seabed, according to the project briefing materials.

Authorities initially contacted 30 salvage companies and are in the process of picking one. The field has been winnowed to companies from Italy, France, Norway, the U.K. and Turkey, with final selection expected in early March.

The project has a $30 million option to retain the Dockwise Vanguard, the world’s largest semi-submersible vessel, as an alternative for transporting Concordia.

About 60% of the direct spending on the recovery (about 261 million euros) has benefited Italy, with another 21% of the benefits flowing to the U.S., 12% to the U.K., 3.8% to the Netherlands and 2.6% to Germany, the project said.

It estimated the overall impact on Italy’s GDP at 540 million euros.

Preview 2014: Cruise

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By Tom Stieghorst

A rendering of the Costa Diadema.It’s been five years since the cruise industry has enjoyed anything like a historically “normal” year.

Starting with the 2008 financial meltdown and continuing through last year’s setback with the Carnival Triumph fire, the headwinds have made profit growth a struggle.

But 2014 could prove to be the breakout year for cruise earnings.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO Kevin Sheehan is predicting a 60% rise in earnings before items like interest and depreciation. A Wave season that doesn’t put the industry in an early hole would improve pricing power throughout the year, a boon for agents as well as suppliers.

To be sure, forecasts are more measured at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., and Carnival Corp. isn’t expecting positive year-over-year price comparisons until the second half of 2014.

But if prices do rebound, several factors will be working to keep them moving upward in 2014.

One is the increasing value that suppliers are placing on the travel agent distribution channel. It is likely, for example, that following Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Conversations program, more agents are motivated to sell those ships today than they were a year ago.

Norwegian recently debuted an “Ask Away” monthly video chat with its top sales executives, while Princess Cruises has unveiled a rash of changes in 2013 designed to make selling that line easier.

An energized agent force can only stimulate demand for cruising, which supports improved pricing.

Cruise lines are also being more disciplined about buying new ships, to keep pricing power from eroding. Carnival, for example, is restricting growth to two to three ships a year across its 10-brand fleet. New deliveries scheduled for 2014 include the Costa Diadema, effectively a replacement for the Costa Concordia, and the Regal Princess, a sister to this year’s Royal Princess.

Also taking a sister ship next year will be Norwegian Cruise Line, which is adding the Norwegian Getaway in late January as a Miami-based version of the Norwegian Breakaway.

The most anticipated ship of 2014, however, will be Royal Caribbean International’s Quantum of the Seas, which will debut in the fall in New York. It is a new class for Royal, its first since the two successful Oasis-class giants.

Quantum will include several “wow” elements such as simulated skydiving and a London Eye-style observation capsule.

Another innovation debuting in 2014 will be “virtual balconies,” which are floor-to-ceiling screens on the wall of interior cabins onto which exterior views are projected. The Navigator of the Seas will get some in February in drydock before they are introduced on the Quantum.

Other innovations in 2014 come in itinerary planning, such as the Oceania Cruises world cruise, which debuts at an unheard-of 180-day length.

Below deck, new backup generators and air scrubber devices are being installed on some vessels to make cruises safer and cleaner next year.

On the service side, Carnival Cruise Lines rolls out two new main dining room programs in 2014 that will emphasize American cuisine.

In communications, several lines are upgrading to provide faster Internet access, with the most dramatic speeds promised for the Oasis and Quantum of the Seas, which will access a network of lower-orbiting satellites starting next year.

But not everything is going high-tech. Printed brochures are back at Carnival Cruise Lines in 2014 for the first time in five years.

Next year will be Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald’s first full year at the helm, following his surprise appointment in 2013. Meanwhile, Edie Bornstein takes over as president of Crystal Cruises, and Cunard Line has new leadership, as well.

Two big anniversaries will be celebrated in 2014: The pioneering Queen Mary 2 will be 10 years old next year, and the Panama Canal will turn 100, leading to more interest in canal transits.

Challenges for 2014 will include crowding in the Caribbean, which will get the large MSC Divina and Norwegian Getaway ships as year-round additions to the market, as well as more short itineraries from Princess Cruises.

In Asia, expansions by Princess into Japan and by Royal Caribbean and Costa into China should continue, although the rise in tensions between those two countries might prevent the most desirable itinerary options.

And in Europe, signs of a turnaround in demand in the second half of 2013 could mean a better year in 2014. Although a weak economy in Spain has drained the life from that country’s cruise industry, Pullmantur will further redeploy in 2014 to Latin America, where it appears to be finding a second wind.