Tag Archives: Harland and Wolff shipyard

Harland & Wolff: New Cruise Refurb Player

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Harland and Wolff with three Viking cruise ships one in the massive drydock.

Led by new owners InfraStrata, Harland & Wolff is lining up cruise ship drydocks for its two large docks in Belfast. A trio of Viking ships was among customers in 2020.

“It was part of a strategic acquisition,” said John Wood, CEO, InfraStrata. “There are no drydock facilities in the UK for cruise vessels. We have two docks, 556 meters and 335 meters, and they are ideally located for cruise ships in Belfast.”

The new owners have been busy investing in the facility, spending money on new dock gates, power lines and robotic welding equipment as well as other upgrades.

The 85-acre facility is also growing. When the new owners came aboard, there were 65 employees, which has grown to over 200, and a new office is being set up in Miami to better liaison with cruise customers, said Wood.

“We expect (this year) to be busy with cruise ships. Everyone has been out of service for the past nine months. We see the classification dockings ramping up as the ships come back into service,” Wood continued, saying he expects demand to increase in the first and second quarters as the industry stages a staggered return to service.

Financial

What will be a huge boost for the cruise industry will be export credit financing on refurbishment projects, Wood said.

“We have worked closely with the UK government and put a couple schemes together. It’s something the UK government wants to do, is to encourage cruise work, and we’ve got two of the biggest docks in Europe and intend to make Belfast one of the cruise refit centres.”

Plans eventually call for deepening the facility’s 556-meter dock, and so far, cruise customer has been happy to hear about export credit options, meaning they can pay for projects later.

“We’ve seen a real shift in the past six weeks. We’ve gone from cruise lines saying ‘Yeah we’ll look at March or April’ to ‘We’d like to dock between these dates and here are our specifications.’”

That has been based on a mix of an expected return to revenue service and export credit financing.

Wood has also gotten creative, hoping to deliver his customers better value for their refurbishment budgets.

“We are looking at docking three vessels in our big dock at once. This will drastically reduce the cost of the drydock for the owners and bring in the OEMs at the same time (for three ships),” he explained. “There are big cost savings there. We’re also working up another proposal around that concept of having two large vessels side-by-side in one dock.”

Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Winter 2020-2021

Cruise Ship Repairs Start at Harland & Wolff; Yard Eyes New builds

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Harland & Wolff cranes, Belfast (May... © Albert Bridge cc-by-sa ...
Two massive cranes at the Harland and Wolff dockyard.

Harland & Wolff is surging back onto the cruise ship repair scene as the ship repair facility is hosting a trio of Viking ships, the Sky, Sun and Sea, in Belfast

Since acquiring Harland and Wolff in December 2019, the new Harland & Wolff team has been quick to realize their strategic ambitions to enter the cruise sector, according to a statement from the shipyard.

Strict protocols were put in place to ensure compliance with all public health guidelines, some of which will be maintained for the foreseeable future as a precautionary measure. While undertaking dockings during the COVID-19 lockdown and with OEM’s unable to travel the yard, teams have made extensive use of video conferencing, enabling OEMs to be virtually involved during maintenance activities onboard the vessels, according to the shipyard.

The yard said the cruise Industry is under financial strain during the pause in operations and has worked with its financial partners to put in place several extended credit term schemes, allowing owners to fully capitalize on periods where vessels are out of service and have works undertaken during this out-of-service period.

Viking Ships at Harland & Wolff
Viking Sky and Viking Sea docking in Belfast.

In addition, yard executives said they not only want to target drydock and repair projects but return to building ships, most likely starting with small expedition-type vessels.

John Wood Group CEO of Harland & Wolff said: “We are delighted to welcome Viking Sky, Sun and Sea to our facilities in Belfast, this is the first time we have had three cruise vessels docked in Harland & Wolff for many decades. Harland & Wolff was once a market leader in this sector and this is a title we are keen to hold again. On the doorstep of the Mediterranean, the UK is in a prime location for refits, conversions and revitalizations. With our vast facilities set in 85 acres, we can handle several large cruise ships concurrently, as demonstrated by the arrival of three vessels from Viking for minor repairs and upgrade works. With two of the largest docks in Europe and the only yard in the UK that can accept the majority of the works cruise ships demand, we look forward to increasing our presence within the cruise sector as we move forward.

“In order to future-proof our yard we are currently scenario-planning to ensure we can welcome all future cruise vessels as they continue the trend of increasing in size,” Wood said .”The cruise sector will be a key cornerstone of our business going forward. With 70% of shipyards closed during the global pandemic, we are now seeing the implications of this as we start to emerge from the crisis, we have witnessed a substantial increase in inquires from the cruise sector with numerous live inquires at this time. It is possible that owners will face delays as they try to get vessels back into service as the industry ramps up again, global availability of drydocks essential to returning vessels into service where they have slipped out of class will be fully occupied not just with cruise vessels but overall sectors that have had dockings cancelled”

Azamara Pursuit to sail Norway itinerary for the first cruise

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Image result for P&O adonia
P&O Adonia to become Azamara Pursuit.

The first Azamara Pursuit cruise will depart Southampton, England, on Aug. 1 and visit eight Norwegian destinations, including Kristiansand, Flam and Haugesund, with overnight stays in Oslo and Bergen.

The Azamara Pursuit is being acquired from P&O Cruises, where it sailed under the name Adonia. It was built for Renaissance Cruises in 2001. It will be Azamara Club Cruises’ third ship.

Prior to its first Azamara departure, the ship will be refurbished at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, by outfitting specialist MJM Group. Work will begin in the spring and will be completed by the end of July.

Following the Norwegian voyage, the Azamara Pursuit will sail a cruise in Iceland departing Aug. 13, a christening voyage on Aug. 28, and then a “wine and romance” itinerary departing Southampton on Aug. 30.