Seas Voyager News

Nippon Paint Marine has signed a long-term supply contract with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings to provide antifouling systems to 13 cruise ships operating under the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands.The agreement, signed late last year, will see the coatings specialist apply its market-leading low-friction SPC antifouling, A-LF-Sea, to six Oceania vessels, five Regent Seven Seas Cruises vessels and Norwegian Cruise Lines ships Norwegian Epic and Norwegian Dawn.A-LF Sea has already been applied in eleven drydocks while three vessels…

Top luxury cruise line Regent Seven Seas Cruises says it's investing $125 million to renovate three of its ships. Beginning with Seven Seas Navigator (built in 1999)  this spring, the public spaces and suites of the Regent fleet will be updated to match the style of the new Seven Seas Explorer, which is scheduled to launch this July. Regent says the update will provide guests with a consistent look and feel across all of the line's ships. The Seven Seas Voyager will be refit in late 2016 and Seven Seas Mariner in the spring of 2017. “Seven Seas Navigator is one of our most beloved ships, so it’s fitting that she is the first to undergo this extraordinary refurbishment,” said Jason Montague, president and chief operating officer for Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

South Africa’s ports are ramping up for a bumper cruise season with at least eight luxury cruise lines and over ten passenger vessels of varying sizes set to ferry international and domestic tourists across the country’s port cities. The South African cruise season kicked off officially in October with a number of smaller vessels already having called at South Africa’s ports. They are en route to and from travel hotspots in Africa, Europe, the Far East, the Mediterranean, South America and more. However the MSC SINFONIA – a cruise ship in the local cruise calendar – marked a highlight in the 2015/16 cruise calendar when she arrived in her homeport of Durban in the early hours of Thursday, November 19. This was her first South African call this season.

Hamburg-based SAM Electronics will exhibit in the German Pavilion (Stand 1C31) in association with its local Shanghai office and its Chinese joint-venture company, SAM Taihang Electronics of Taizhou, a comprehensive range of advanced navigation, propulsion, power management and distribution, and ship automation systems. Key exhibits include sections of a locally-produced Integrated Bridge System combining and automating all main bridge equipment operating functions for navigation, communications and general ship management. It incorporates a latest NACOS Series 4 navigation command system. Among other navigation products will be the new European wheelmark-accredited Debeg 3400 UAIS together with its companion Debeg 3401 Display Control Unit (DCU).

Seven Seas Voyager, the new 50,000-gt cruise ship under construction at T. Mariotti Shipyard in Genoa, Italy for Radisson Seven Seas, will be among the first ships to house the new Dolphin podded propulsion system jointly developed by STN Atlas Marine Electronics and John Crane-Lips. The vessel, which is scheduled for a 2003 delivery will boast podded propulsors delivering 2 x 7,000 kW at 170 rpm. Main features include integration of a powerful electric drive into a hydro-dynamically optimized pod below ship, resulting in a directly-driven propeller. Extensive CFD analyses and model tank tests have led to the development of a pod shape with enhanced efficiency and maneuvering characteristics.

On February 14, the world's largest high-speed ferry catamaran Stena Discovery took off from Belfast, after a planned drydocking, and about one hour out at sea on the captain's command the waterjet control was switched over to steering by a retrofitted Humphree Interceptor Steering System. While the interceptors engaged and provided the means for directional control of the vessel, the steering buckets of the four Kamewa 160 SII waterjets, in total absorbing a power of 68.5 MW, automatically returned to their neutral, or boost position, allowing all waterjet thrust to be vectored forward for maximum thrust, and eliminating the waterjet bucket drag.

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) -- the organization tasked with helping the world's cruise lines promote their ships -- reported cruise shipping fleet growth in 2002/03. In a year-end report the organization noted that 14 new vessels -- as well as three re-launched ships and several others introduced in late 2002 but having their inaugural sailing seasons in the new year -- will make 2003 another record year in the cruise industry. Bora Bora Cruises: The 226-foot, 2,677-ton, Tia Moana and Tu Moana are scheduled to begin sailing in the South Pacific in June. The ships are designed to sail to the heart of the Tahitian lagoons. Carnival Cruise Lines: The 110,000-ton, 2,974-passenger Carnival Glory launches year-round seven-day Caribbean service from Port Canaveral July 19.

First announced this past fall, a new four-year agreement between Marlink and Radisson Seven Seas, was finalized during a press conference at this year's Sea Trade Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami, Fla. Held at the Raleigh Hotel, executives from Marlink, (a wholly owned subsidiary of Telenor); and Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, the briefing outlined the satellite services that will be provided onboard Seven Seas Navigator and newbuild Seven Seas Voyager, which is to be launched this year. The two vessels will join Seven Seas Mariner, which has been offering Marlink's service since 2001, in providing high speed data communications at 128 kbps.

Radisson Seven Sea's newest edition to the fleet, Seven Seas Voyager will be christened March 31, 2003 in Monte Carlo with her maiden voyage scheduled for April 1. The Voyager, the world’s second all balcony-suite vessel, will be a sister ship to, but not an identical twin of, the Seven Seas Mariner. The new vessel has a high space ratio, with every guest enjoying a minimum of 301 square feet of living space plus balcony. Four main dining venues will be featured including the 110-seat Le Cordon Bleu® -directed Signatures. The Voyager also features some of the more popular elements of the Seven Seas Navigator's celebrated design including ultra-spacious marble bathrooms with separate showers and full bathtubs.

Compelling design and operational arguments in favor of podded electric drives can be expected to transcend any negative impressions formed from the recent clutch of problems and complications experienced with such systems in certain cruise ship and ferry applications. Experience has shown that technical innovation in the maritime field has invariably been accompanied by early setbacks in some shape or form. In an industry where conservatism is the order of the day, and understandably so where assets are subjected to the rigors of the elements as well as the vicissitudes of the markets, those operators willing to be the standard bearers with new technology provide a beacon for the wider maritime community.