Markku Kanerva News

Blue Star Line in conjunction with German hydrodynamic service and consulting group the Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSVA) has conducted the first model testing of the proposed Titanic II in Germany. A 9.3m wooden model of Titanic II was put through propulsion and power testing in a 300m long tank at HSVA’s Hamburg facilities over four days from September 9-12. “The speed and power performance model testing is one of the critical aspects for a prototype vessel and needs to be verified before a construction contract is completed.

Australian mining entrepreneur Clive Palmer intends the ship to largely recreate the design and decor of the ill-fated original. The original design of the Titanic will be modified to keep it in line with current safety rules and shipbuilding practices, and the addition of some modern comforts such as air conditioning, reports the China Daily. White Star Line, the operator of the original ship, had said the Titanic was designed to be unsinkable. Some 1,500 people died on Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912 from Southampton to New York after the ship collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic. However, Palmer, who created the company Blue Star Line last year, declined to make a similar boast.

Finnish technical consultancy Deltamarin, in characteristically innovative style, is breaking new ground with the development of new computer-based services encompassing safety simulation and risk assessment, knowledge management and life-cycle support. Its latest endeavors form the basis of what it describes as contemporary configuration engineering and management, and extend the role and business scope of a practitioner of the latest technology tools in marine design, engineering and production. Armed with new methodologies and products, which offer a seamless link from the design and construction period into the post-delivery stages…

Finnish technical consultancy Deltamarin, in characteristically innovative style, is breaking new ground with the development of new computer-based services encompassing safety simulation and risk assessment, knowledge management and life-cycle support. Its latest endeavors form the basis of what it describes as contemporary configuration engineering and management, and extend the role and business scope of a practitioner of the latest technology tools in marine design, engineering and production. Armed with new methodologies and products, which offer a seamless link from the design and construction period into the post-delivery stages…

The advent of software solutions has infiltrated nearly every sector of the maritime market - from propulsion performance monitoring packages to personnel. It arguably has had no greater impact, though, than in the design and construction of new vessels. CAD/CAM/CAE programs are invaluable assets to the designer, builder and operator of vessels of all sizes and dimensions. Not only do advanced programs allow for the creation of the an efficient and cost effective ship structure and outfitting, they provide for enhanced manufacturing practices and techniques, and increasingly help devise a life-cycle maintenance and care plan which can tack profitable years onto a vessel's life.

Finnish design specialist Deltamarin is synonymous with advanced cruise ship design and construction. The company, as has many of its colleagues in this country, have built a formidible empire of accrued cruise shipbuilding knowledge and experience which it has used to remain a key player in the international cruise market. But as the cruise industry stumbles, so too do the myriad of companies which serve it. While an extended downturn is not generally forecast, Deltamarin must find new business to keep its 320 employees busy and its sales at or near its 2001 mark of nearly $26 million. To do this, it has trained its sites on expanding both regionally and by vessel niches served…