Marine Link
Friday, March 29, 2024

Harland & Wolff Wins Contracts for Dry Docking of Two Cruise Vessels

Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.

April 11, 2022

P&O Cruises Aurora / Photo By MacdonaldAndy - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://bit.ly/3E2kroB

P&O Cruises Aurora / Photo By MacdonaldAndy - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://bit.ly/3E2kroB

Harland & Wolff Group has been awarded a dry dock contract for two cruise ships from P&O Cruises and Cunard respectively that will occupy the Belfast drydock for 33 days in total. 

The companies have selected Harland & Wolff's 81-acre Belfast shipyard to undertake drydocking works on two of its ships - Aurora and Queen Victoria. The works due to be undertaken on both ships are standard drydocking operations.

The first ship to dock under this agreement will be Cunard's Queen Victoria which entered service in December 2007. With a length of 294m and a beam of 32.3m, it will be in the yard from 2nd to 19th May 2022.  Queen Victoria will be the largest cruise ship ever to have drydocked in a UK shipyard and the only Cunard ship to have ever drydocked in Belfast, H&W said.

The second ship is P&O Cruises' Aurora which entered service in May 2000. With a length of 270m and a beam of 32m, it will be in the yard from the 9th to 23rd June 2022.



"The arrival of these ships in Belfast will mark another milestone completed in relation to the Harland & Wolff's re-activation strategy across its key markets. Harland & Wolff's strategy has been very clear, i.e., to operate in five markets and six service sectors to ensure continuity of projects and to provide longevity of employment for the core workforce. This will result in improved productivity and reduced project costs for vessel owners," Harland & Wolff said.

"With the recent release of the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSbS), repairs & maintenance projects, as well as through life support services, are key activities that will facilitate the continuity of skills and enhance productivity levels at Harland & Wolff required to win new build projects.  As indicated in the NSbS, there are over 150 domestic vessels to be built in the coming years, in addition to the fabrication works for the renewables sector following the latest ScotWind licensing round and future licensing rounds yet to be announced," Harland & Wolff said.

Harland & Wolff, group CEO John Wood, said:"When acquiring the assets of Harland and Wolff (Belfast) in December 2019 and in a pre-pandemic period, the cruise industry was one of our key target markets.  Our facilities are ideally placed to capitalize on these types of large projects whilst we continue servicing our smaller but regular clients. We have now secured contracts in four out of our five markets; commercial, cruise & ferry, renewables and energy - we now hope to complete the final milestone of securing a defense contract in the near future."

Carnival UK, vice-president maritime David Varty said: "We are delighted to be able to have these two ships at a UK shipyard with such a long heritage and reputation and we very much look forward to supporting the UK maritime industry and working closely with the Harland & Wolff team on this project."

Subscribe for
Maritime Reporter E-News

Maritime Reporter E-News is the maritime industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email five times per week