chengkp75

No more than you would with bringing a six pack of root beer. Go for the Dark and Stormy.

Why would a cruise line pay more for something than they needed to, particularly if the customer is "price insensitive", since that would mean the cruise line could charge a fare to cover a non-existent electrical filtering system, when they didn't pay for it in the first place?

But, if you ground the wiring to the hull, to allow the use of passenger surge protectors, then you place all of the ship's electronics in danger of power surges from say lightning strikes, and I don't mean portable surge protectors, but permanent ones for built in equipment, which are not needed now. Not sure what your investment in allowing surge protectors on ships is about.

Not sure what you mean by "designed to function properly with one ground fault"? What is designed this way? And, why replace one ground fault meter with thousands of GFCI devices?

The decision as to what frequency power the ship produces is made by the ship owner and shipyard at time of newbuilding, and no one knows what countries the ship may serve in the future. As for dry docking, the vast majority of cruise ships don't connect to shore power in dry dock. Most shipyards are not outfitted to supply either the high voltage power (10k), or the amount of power (4-6Mw or more) that a cruise ship uses for hotel load. Cruise ship will generally have two water connections for engine cooling that replaces the sea water cooling the ship uses when in the ocean, and the shipyard pumps cooling water in one connection, and it flows out the other connection into the harbor, and the cruise ship runs one of its diesel generators while in dry dock.

Why should the shipping industry move to change a whole system of electrical distribution, for something that is not needed. What savings do they get from buying something that has a surge protector, when they don't need the surge protector? Doing it your way would require the ships to outfit all of their electronics with surge protection, at vast cost. So, your reasoning is that they need to spend money to allow something that is not needed, when they can simply ban the item, and it doesn't cost them a dime? The only benefit of doing it your way is to the passengers, there is no benefit to the cruise industry.

I assume by "form factor" you are referring to the ship's hull shape, or block coefficient? What would that have to do with how a ship is wired? Are there different standards for wiring small, single engine airplanes or jumbo jets? Are they built by different professions? All ships have the same wiring systems. The major difference between cruise ships and the cargo ships that represent 95% of the ships in the world, is that cruise ships use electric propulsion, while cargo ships use diesel propulsion.

No, it uses 60Hz. There are never different frequency power on a ship, unless it is from a frequency drive to vary motor speed. The frequency of power is not changed when a ship moves from one area of the world to another.

You are very obviously new to Cruise Critic, or you would know that bitching about the price of the cruise is topic #1 here. They do, but they don't always work completely. And the voltage converters are to change 60Hz AC to DC, and then back to variable frequency AC to allow AC motors (driving the propellers and thrusters) to operate at various speeds. And, lets say that I have a 20Mw frequency drive connected to even a 1Gw power grid, and change the load on that frequency drive from zero to maximum in a minute? The noise from that frequency drive represents 2% of the power grid's capacity, so 98% of the power can help to filter out the noise, even without RLC circuits. Now, let's say that 20Mw frequency drive is connected to a 90Mw "grid" on a cruise ship. That frequency drive accounts for 22% of the grids capacity, leaving far less "clean" power to filter, so you would need huge RLC filters. And, that is not counting that a ship with 90Mw of generators would have typically 2 20Mw frequency drives, so the noisy power now amount to nearly half of the capacity.

The real question is why do you feel that surge protectors are needed on ships? What are the most common sources for power surges? Lightning strikes. Because the ship's wiring is not connected to the hull, lightning that strikes the ship passes harmlessly through the hull to the sea, and doesn't interact with the ship's wiring at all. I've been on several ships that have taken direct lightning strikes, and have never had any electronics (either personal or the ship's equipment) damaged by it. Transformer failure. The transformers on telephone poles takes the 12,000v from the substation, and reduces it in a single step to 220v for distribution to homes. If this transformer fails, it can send the full 12,000v to your house in a power surge. On a ship, the 10,000v main power is stepped down to 480v in a transformer, that 480v is then stepped down to 220v in a different transformer, and finally the 220v is stepped down to 120v in a third transformer. Now, most consumer surge protected power strips have a VPN (voltage protection number, or the voltage where the surge protector dumps the power to ground) of about 500-600v. So, for your device plugged into a 120v outlet in your cruise ship cabin outlet, in order to get a voltage surge large enough for the surge protector to even start protecting, would require failure of 3 separate transformers. Finally, if surge protectors were needed, why is it that none, zero, zilch of the ship's electronics (valued far higher than the aggregate of all the passenger's electronics), from navigation, communication, propulsion control, engine room automation, all the way to POS sales registers, and the multitude of desktop computers used around the ship, do not have any surge protection whatsoever.

Because, if a motor were to experience a ground failure, i.e. provide 480v power to the hull, then the neutral point on the generators would provide a return path for current, and you would have galvanic corrosion. If, however, the neutral point is not connected to the hull, that same motor going to ground would have no path for current, and would not cause corrosion. It also allows for the use of ground fault meters which are connected to the hull, to detect when these ground faults happen.

Again, do you mean that the ship is "home ported" as cruisers tend to use the phrase "it's where the ship embarks and disembarks passengers at the beginning and end of cruises"? If so, many cruise ships do not have permanent "home ports", but will change home ports with the seasons, or as demographics change the demand for cruises in other areas. Or, do you mean the "home port" as a mariner knows the term, "what is the port name on the back of the ship"? That is the "port of registry", and many ships never even call once at the port of registry, it is merely a legal "domicile". Finally, shipyards doing overhauls of cruise ships are generally not in the "home port" (either definition). Witness the Oasis class ships that do not have a drydock large enough to take them anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, where most of them routinely cruise, and have to transit to Europe for dry dockings.

Most ships generate 10,000 volts for the prime users (propulsion, thrusters, AC chillers), this is stepped down to 480v, then to 220v and finally to 120v (commonly referred to as "110" or "115" in the US). Most ships use 60 Hz, though UK flag (and built) ships tend to be 50 Hz. No, there is no international standard for ship's power, it falls to the flag state. Varying the frequency from 60 Hz to 50 Hz, or back, is not really critical, unless it is for a clock that uses mains frequency for the timing beat. Motors will run slightly faster or slower depending on what frequency they are built for, and what frequency they are using, but it almost never harms things. The worst I saw was when we were reflagging a UK offshore drilling rig to US registry, so going from 50 Hz to 60 Hz, and the washing machines, when they went to spin dry, tore the foundation bolts off, and started walking out of the laundry room. All of the circuits on a ship will have the same frequency, regardless of outlet class. Changing voltage can be a problem, depending on what the difference is. I had a UK washer and dryer that I brought home to the US, and used for several years, going from 240v to 220v, even though the electrician told me the solenoid coils may burn out faster. On the other hand, a ship I was on was connected to shore power in the US, being supplied at 440v, when our equipment was designed for 480v. The reduced voltage caused a lot of contactor coils to burn out in a matter of a couple of weeks. When you ask about a "ship based in the Philippines", do you mean a ship built in the Philippines, or a cruise ship homeported there? Generally ships will be built to the local standard of the "flag state" or the shipyard nationality. Just because a ship may be temporarily home ported in a country does not mean the power changes. The base design load for cruise ships is 10,000 volts, and the generator voltage regulators maintain this. The design of the step down transformers (10k/480, 480/220, 220/120) means they will vary if the 10k voltage varies. Other ships use 480v as the base voltage. 60 Hz ships have the generator engine governors set to maintain 60 Hz. However, since the main power users on a ship (like thrusters) can create a much wider load fluctuation (large swing in power demand) than on land, because the total capacity of the "grid" is near the total demand of the ship, the frequency fluctuates more than on land, but generally in the range of 59.5 - 60.5 Hz, though a 1-2 Hz swing can happen, as engines do not respond instantaneously, as electrical demand does. When a ship connects to shore power it is agreed as to what amperage, voltage, and frequency is to be supplied before connection, and if the desired power is not available, it is not connected.

I don't think anyone disputes that the ship should not have been where it was, it would be interesting to see if the Sailing Directions and the Port Entry Guide for Kauaii have the information regarding the exclusion zone. Those would be the areas where the shipboard crew would learn about the zone, unless it is marked on the chart, which I don't think it would be, as it is not a federal requirement.

Staff Captain, who has to be a licensed Master, the same as the Captain.