Oasis incident at Freeport Shipyard

[SakeDad]

3 minutes ago, FlyhotmommaVT said:

So glad to hear there were no life-threatening injuries!

 

What do you think the odds are they move the fall AMPed dry dock to now, when she gets to Europe?  If they are cancelling cruises if she's damaged, why not?  We are booked on July 14th Med sailing...debating about moving it if there are long/major repairs.  I don't want to pay $ for this cruise and flights if she'll be damaged goods during our cruise. 😢  

 

I have 2 weeks until final payment, so I'll sit and wait...🍿

Well, the local Bahama shipyard is now experienced with AMPing up the ships. Not sure the European ones are. They are also less expensive. 

Nothing will be decided until they can assess all the damage from the crane. If it's just cosmetic to AquaTheatre they can continue on with the rest of the ship's work this week. If it's more structural they may have to repair that before deciding when they can sail again. It will probably be a day or two before that is known.

I am wondering if cruise insurance would cover any cancellations or would RCCL step up and cover it?

[steamboats]

58 minutes ago, FlyhotmommaVT said:

What do you think the odds are they move the fall AMPed dry dock to now, when she gets to Europe?

 

The dry dock is scheduled for October/November for an almost 2 month period. They are going to Cadiz. It´ll be pretty hard to move this forward to April/May/June. I doubt that the dock is available for such a long time on a short notice. Navantia in Cadiz is pretty busy refurbishing ships. Currently the Carnival Triumph is there for the refurb to the "new" Carnival Sunrise. Celebrity Summit has just left the dock there. So they are pretty booked. There might be an opening for a week or two but not the time they´ve planned for fall.

 

Other options would be Rotterdam (where the Oasis has been in 2014) or maybe Marseilles (I think they also have a dry dock big enough).

 

steamboats

[BigAl94]

2 hours ago, SakeDad said:

Well, the local Bahama shipyard is now experienced with AMPing up the ships. Not sure the European ones are. They are also less expensive. 

Nothing will be decided until they can assess all the damage from the crane. If it's just cosmetic to AquaTheatre they can continue on with the rest of the ship's work this week. If it's more structural they may have to repair that before deciding when they can sail again. It will probably be a day or two before that is known.

I am wondering if cruise insurance would cover any cancellations or would RCCL step up and cover it?

The crane damage is a relatively minor issue, the real issue is the catastrophic failure of the floating dock when lifting the ship and possible resulting hull/azipod damage. They wont be carrying on repair work using this dock. This ship isn't going TA anyway soon in my opinion.

[chengkp75]

Okay, I will disagree with some of what my colleagues have posted here regarding the drydock.  First off, a floating drydock is not a "wetdock" it is a drydock, as the ship is lifted out of the water (dry).  Wetdock refers to a repair period where the ship is merely tied to a pier in a shipyard and work is completed on areas above the waterline.

 

The problem here is that the floating drydock in GBSY is not big enough to lift the length or weight of the Oasis completely out of the water.  The ship overhangs the end of the drydock, and the drydock is pumped out to raise it such that the bow of the ship is still greatly in the water (the aft end of the dock is pumped higher than the foreward end).  Also, since there is still water "inside" the floating drydock (there are no ends), this water supports some of the weight of the ship.  Once the ship is positioned inside the dock, and the dock raised sufficiently, but with the azipods still underwater, cofferdam doors are raised from the dock floor to form boxes around the azipods, and these are then pumped dry to allow working.  So, if you had to call this procedure something, it would be a "partial drydocking", but whatever you call it, it is a one of a kind procedure.

 

This is the only drydock in the Western Hemisphere that is large enough, and equipped with the cofferdam arrangement to handle the Oasis class ships.  If indeed the drydock suffered structural failure, depending on the status of the work being done below the waterline on Oasis, she may well be seriously delayed, or need towing across the pond.  If the dock merely suffered a leak into one or more ballast tanks, or a piping failure, causing the dock's tanks to fill with water again and sink from under the ship, if this can be repaired, they may be able to redock the Oasis and finish the underwater repairs.  Sinking of floating drydocks is far more common than the complete structural failure others have mentioned.  Not saying it can't happen, and certainly with a complex arrangement like docking an Oasis class, that exceeds the limits of the dock, it could, but sinking is more likely. 

Edited April 2, 2019 by chengkp75

[steamboats]

@chengkp75 I don´t think that any work has been already done. The Oasis moved over to Freeport on Sunday. According to James Van Fleet´s Tweet from yesterday "two cofferdams in place and dry now" they have just started to get the azipods out of the water on Monday.

 

steamboats

[chengkp75]

1 minute ago, steamboats said:

@chengkp75 I don´t think that any work has been already done. The Oasis moved over to Freeport on Sunday. According to James Van Fleet´s Tweet from yesterday "two cofferdams in place and dry now" they have just started to get the azipods out of the water on Monday.

 

steamboats

Well, that can be a blessing, because even with a quick repair to the dock, it would need a thorough class inspection before it was declared safe to use again, especially for a big lift like Oasis.  Not sure what the problem was, did she lose another pod recently?  May have to limp along on two pods until getting to Cadiz.

 

If this happened very shortly after raising the ship and pumping the cofferdams, I would start to suspect that a valve may have failed and the dock simply sank from under Oasis. With the dock and the ship both listing, the starboard side of the dock may have sunk, while the port did not and is still partially supporting the port side of Oasis, while the starboard side of the ship is fully in the water.

[nelblu]

10 hours ago, willde said:

 

 

The crane referenced in many of the headlines is not in the picture I posted earlier, it's this one:

 

 

 

Thanks, from the videos that I've seen, they don't show crane falling on the Aqua Theatre.  Any more news what caused the crane to fail.

[mousefan73]

I really hope there is no  major damage. we are all paid, flights/hotel booked for the June 13th rome sailing.

Worse case scenario what does the cruiseline do? Assume full refund as mechanical. But do they give other goodies? Rebook of other options, OBC?  We have insurance but From a customer POV many are going to be upset and out tons of money. Sure weather can happen. But something like this is different.

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, mousefan73 said:

I really hope there is no  major damage. we are all paid, flights/hotel booked for the June 13th rome sailing.

Worse case scenario what does the cruiseline do? Assume full refund as mechanical. But do they give other goodies? Rebook of other options, OBC?  We have insurance but From a customer POV many are going to be upset and out tons of money. Sure weather can happen. But something like this is different.

 

If they cancel your cruise, they normally offer price protection on a limited number of similar cruises and OBC.  Sometimes they also offer to reimburse airline change fees.  A full refund will also be offered.

[cgolf1]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Okay, I will disagree with some of what my colleagues have posted here regarding the drydock.  First off, a floating drydock is not a "wetdock" it is a drydock, as the ship is lifted out of the water (dry).  Wetdock refers to a repair period where the ship is merely tied to a pier in a shipyard and work is completed on areas above the waterline.

 

The problem here is that the floating drydock in GBSY is not big enough to lift the length or weight of the Oasis completely out of the water.  The ship overhangs the end of the drydock, and the drydock is pumped out to raise it such that the bow of the ship is still greatly in the water (the aft end of the dock is pumped higher than the foreward end).  Also, since there is still water "inside" the floating drydock (there are no ends), this water supports some of the weight of the ship.  Once the ship is positioned inside the dock, and the dock raised sufficiently, but with the azipods still underwater, cofferdam doors are raised from the dock floor to form boxes around the azipods, and these are then pumped dry to allow working.  So, if you had to call this procedure something, it would be a "partial drydocking", but whatever you call it, it is a one of a kind procedure.

 

This is the only drydock in the Western Hemisphere that is large enough, and equipped with the cofferdam arrangement to handle the Oasis class ships.  If indeed the drydock suffered structural failure, depending on the status of the work being done below the waterline on Oasis, she may well be seriously delayed, or need towing across the pond.  If the dock merely suffered a leak into one or more ballast tanks, or a piping failure, causing the dock's tanks to fill with water again and sink from under the ship, if this can be repaired, they may be able to redock the Oasis and finish the underwater repairs.  Sinking of floating drydocks is far more common than the complete structural failure others have mentioned.  Not saying it can't happen, and certainly with a complex arrangement like docking an Oasis class, that exceeds the limits of the dock, it could, but sinking is more likely. 

 

Is there any concern that the hull itself would be damaged by the floating drydock? I have seen pictures that show the starboard side of the hull leaning on the dry dock. loyal.to.royal on Instagram has a good picture of this. I would do a screen shot of the picture, but I have a hunch it may not be their picture so not sure of the legality of posting it here even with their tag showing.

Edited April 2, 2019 by cgolf1

[atricks]

Is there any full sized drydock that can handle the Oasis class on the East coast? 

 

Newport News, VA is the only thing I can think of that might. 

 

[chengkp75]

8 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

 

Is there any concern that the hull itself would be damaged by the floating drydock? I have seen pictures that show the starboard side of the hull leaning on the dry dock. loyal.to.royal on Instagram has a good picture of this. I would do a screen shot of the picture, but I have a hunch it may not be their picture so not sure of the legality of posting it here even with their tag showing.

Too much of a luddite to do social media, so I can't see the photo.  There may be damage to Oasis' hull, but just resting against the drydock wall would not normally cause serious damage, but a sharp protrusion could.  Hard to say without some photos.

[fsjosh]

Looking at the pics and vids available here, I don't think theres anything that shows hull damage that would affect its sailing. Sure that right side where the crane hit is going to be bent up a little and the aquatheatre could be out of commision for a while. Where I'd be concerned is, when all this moved, did the cofferdams hit the hull or azipods and cause real underwater damage. 

[BillOh]

32 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

If they cancel your cruise, they normally offer price protection on a limited number of similar cruises and OBC.  Sometimes they also offer to reimburse airline change fees.  A full refund will also be offered.

 

This is one area that I think Royal could do better at minimal cost and good PR when a situation happens that requires last minute rescheduling.   If you had a GS for 7 days, you should be able to get on on any other sailing within a reasonable time.  So often those limited similar cruises don't seem to be a good match. Of course the full refund is an option. 

[orville99]

15 hours ago, jdg623 said:

While the recent Noro outbreak did happen, that's not why she was in dry dock - that was due to a mechanical problem from months back, which is why they cancelled the March 31 sailing (there was a big thread about this).  We are supposed to be boarding her on Sunday - not looking good 😖  Glad no one seems to have been seriously injured in this incident.

True. We were on Oasis at the end of January, and were told by an officer on board that this wet dock was scheduled for the end of march so they would be ready for the transatlantic crossing in April.

[cgolf1]

11 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Too much of a luddite to do social media, so I can't see the photo.  There may be damage to Oasis' hull, but just resting against the drydock wall would not normally cause serious damage, but a sharp protrusion could.  Hard to say without some photos.

 

I will let the mods decide on the photo, I captured the user to give them credit. 

[Biker19]

5 hours ago, SakeDad said:

Well, the local Bahama shipyard is now experienced with AMPing up the ships. Not sure the European ones are.

Mainer was Amped in Europe.

[chengkp75]

7 minutes ago, atricks said:

Is there any full sized drydock that can handle the Oasis class on the East coast? 

 

Newport News, VA is the only thing I can think of that might. 

 

While Oasis would fit into one of Newport News' graving docks (fixed drydock, which doesn't have weight limitations since the dock isn't lifting anything), the yard is not in the business of commercial ship repair (which requires a totally different business model than government ship repairs or newbuilding), and I don't know if one of their docks is available, or if they would offer it if it was available.  Newport News' dock #12 is the only dock in the western hemisphere that could handle the Oasis, and there are only a handful around the world that can.

[steamboats]

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

Newport News' dock #12 is the only dock in the western hemisphere that could handle the Oasis, and there are only a handful around the world that can.

 

Rotterdam (where the Oasis has been in 2014), Cadiz (Navantia, where the Allure has been in 2015 and Oasis is scheduled to go in fall) and I´m not sure about Marseilles.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

I just read that RCI has scheduled a press conference at 5 pm today.

 

steamboats

[sweetchariot]

How will they make their announcement later?  Would it be on their website?  I do I need to subscribe somewhere?

 

Thanks

 

 

[chengkp75]

3 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

 

I will let the mods decide on the photo, I captured the user to give them credit. 

 

Would love to see a photo of the other side, but that looks to me like the dock sank, not necessarily broke up.  There could be some damage to the hull, but where it is in contact or near contact would be above the waterline normally, so not real serious.  I see that the anchor chain has been "ranged" on the dock floor for inspection/cleaning, and this might be a worry if the ship is sitting on the chain.  Another possible damage point is whether the stabilizers are damaged.  Certainly the shifting of the ship in relation to the cofferdams is a concern, but these were much larger than the pod itself, in order to allow space for the propeller when removed, and the spare shaft cartridge, along with work area, so the worst might be a bent blade or two, which can be straightened.

[Biker19]

3 minutes ago, steamboats said:

I just read that RCI has scheduled a press conference at 5 pm today.

Why do I have a feeling that CC will melt down after that?

[steamboats]

2 minutes ago, sweetchariot said:

How will they make their announcement later?  Would it be on their website?  I do I need to subscribe somewhere?

 

It´s a press conference. I can´t tell you whether they do a live stream or whatever for the public.

 

steamboats

[scooby1]

Not sure this link has been posted before. It shows shots from the other side of the ship where the end of crane has fallen, and the back of the ship. 

 

https://www.is.fi/ulkomaat/art-2000006055885.html?utm_medium=social

 

Also that the area under the azipods that had the steps showing in this feed below are now sunken beneath the ship. For those cruising on the Oasis soon I hope all is ok and it can't have been a great experience for the workers near the collapse. All work to fix the ship is likely to be at a stop for the time being regardless I expect.

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by scooby1