Tim Gallagher News

US-based Deep Impact Boats will exhibit over 6 new, custom built boats, at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show. Deep Impact will have a total of 7 boats inside the convention center including:  399 Deep Blue with powerful quad engines and an oversized t-top, a 360 Open in a luxurious Ferrari red with forward sunbed, the new 330LS silver, black and orange the sportiest yacht tender around, a redesigned 330TE, a 399 Open blue and tan, a 360C Copper 100th anniversary Harley Davidson and a 360TE red for the hard core angler.

A plan to build a $400 million bayfront ball park for the Florida Marlins is pitting the team's millionaire owner against Miami's powerful cruise industry and its billionaire patriarch. Boca Raton, Fla.-based hedge fund manager John Henry paid $150 million cash for the 1997 World Series champion Marlins after former owner Wayne Huizenga stripped the team of its talent and alienated fans. Key to Henry's plan to rebuild the losing team's roster and dwindling fan base is a retractable-roof stadium, which he wants to pay for with a $4 per-day tax levied on cruise passengers traveling through the Port of Miami. Henry's proposal, now moving through the Florida Senate, puts him head-to-head with the lightly taxed cruise industry and Carnival Corp.

AP reported that was the real-life situation the crew and passengers of the Seabourn Spirit found themselves in off Somalia last weekend. With piracy common in some areas and terrorism fears present after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, cruise lines say they train their crews and have security measures to respond effectively to these threats. But security experts say that despite all the preparations, cruise liners are vulnerable to attacks like this one or the deadly bombing by al-Qaeda-linked militants of the USS Cole in Yemen five years ago. Cruise industry officials said the Spirit's successful efforts to repel the attackers validate security plans that all ships must have in place under U.S. and international law.

One week after spurning an offer from industry leader Carnival Cruise Lines, Norwegian cruise ships operator NCL Holding ASA is in talks with Singapore's Star Cruises Plc. Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line, the world's fourth-largest cruise operator, had rejected Carnival's 30 Norwegian crowns-a-share offer ($3.77) as too low and hinted rival takeover bids might surface. But NCL said it was not clear whether Star, the leading Asia-Pacific cruise line, would prove its savior. "Further information will be given if NCL receives a concrete bid from Star Cruises," NCL said. Carnival immediately challenged Star to come up with a better offer than its own made last week, which valued NCL at $884 million, or $1.7 billion with assumption of debt.

Carnival Cruise Lines has settled before trial a sex-attack lawsuit that forced the big cruise operator to make public an embarrassing accounting of 108 sex-assault charges, Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher said. Terms were being kept secret as part of the settlement. The suit was brought by a 29-year-old nurse who claimed she had been raped by another crewmember aboard Carnival's Imagination during August 1998. A trial in the case, whose plaintiff was never publicly identified, was scheduled to begin in a Miami court next week. The suit alleged that Carnival's screening of staff was poor and inadequate. Known for its Fun Ships, the Carnival Cruise Lines unit of Carnival Corp.

Carnival Cruise Lines has settled before trial a sex-attack lawsuit that forced the big cruise operator to make public an embarrassing accounting of 108 sex-assault charges, Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher said. Terms were being kept secret as part of the settlement. The suit was brought by a 29-year-old nurse who claimed she had been raped by another crewmember aboard Carnival's Imagination during August 1998. A trial in the case, whose plaintiff was never publicly identified, was scheduled to begin in a Miami court next week. The suit alleged that Carnival's screening of staff was poor and inadequate.

In what has become an all too familiar scenario, another Carnival cruise ship reported engine problems and ended floating aimlessly while passengers onboard no doubt fumed. The latest in a string of high-profile mishaps for the world’s largest cruise company involved its ship Destiny, carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew. By Wednesday afternoon, technicians had reportedly restored partial power, but only after it had drifted for 27 hours in the Atlantic off the Turks and Caicos Islands. Power to the two electric propulsion motors of the cruise liner Destiny was lost about 1:40 a.m. EST (0640 GMT) Tuesday, leaving the ship adrift about 60 miles (97 km) east of Grand Turk, one of the Atlantic islands that make up the British colony north of Hispaniola, the company said.