Pride of America Dry Dock

The POAm will be in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for drydock on Friday and out on Sunday the report states.

If all goes well....

Has the specific nature of the compliance inspection been discussed?

That's pretty fast.

Keith

That is quick...

That is quick...

It is not a normal drydock. The whole thing popped up the last couple weeks as people on the trip before and after got notified their trip had lost one day and was now 6 days instead of the 7.

Isn't it just for an inspection?

I'm still not convinced they could actually pump the ship out of the water, clean it for inspection, inspect it, and drop it back in the water by Sunday, plus the fact that she is not due for drydocking, I'll stick with my estimate that they are doing a UWILD, underwater survey using divers, as required by law. Since the Star Princess is going to dock at Pier 2 Saturday, they could not keep POA there for the inspection (and not sure of currents or clarity for video survey), so they are going to Pearl Harbor. BAE (British Aerospace), which owns the San Francisco Shipyard, has rights to use the Pearl Harbor drydock and facilities if the US Navy does not need them. I'll be watching on Marinetraffic to see exactly where the ship goes, though they may actually park her in the drydock, but not pump it up.

I'm guessing that wont be cheap.

I'm guessing that wont be cheap.

It's cheaper than an actual drydocking, which is why most shipping companies will do this for the mid-period drydock interval. All ships are supposed to drydock "twice in 5 years". But ships less than 15 years old can substitute an underwater survey for the midperiod exams (2.5 years, 7.5 years, 12.5 years). It does take time, usually a ship will do this over 2-4 turn-around port calls, but I believe POA is at the end of its statutory window (six months either way of 2.5 years) so need to do it quickly, and there may be problems with doing a dive survey at Pier 2 in Honolulu. The problem stemmed from the POA contracting with BAE to do their last drydocking in Honolulu (back in 2015, I think), and then the Navy pre-empting the time slot for the drydock (and Navy drydockings typically last months), so POA had to scurry around and get the first available slot on the West Coast, which was at San Francisco. This put their whole statutory inspection schedule in disarray, and I think they thought the underwater would be from the time of the actual drydocking, not in years from newbuild original, so it came up unexpectedly months earlier than NCL anticipated.

It's cheaper than an actual drydocking, which is why most shipping companies will do this for the mid-period drydock interval. All ships are supposed to drydock "twice in 5 years". But ships less than 15 years old can substitute an underwater survey for the midperiod exams (2.5 years, 7.5 years, 12.5 years). It does take time, usually a ship will do this over 2-4 turn-around port calls, but I believe POA is at the end of its statutory window (six months either way of 2.5 years) so need to do it quickly, and there may be problems with doing a dive survey at Pier 2 in Honolulu. The problem stemmed from the POA contracting with BAE to do their last drydocking in Honolulu (back in 2015, I think), and then the Navy pre-empting the time slot for the drydock (and Navy drydockings typically last months), so POA had to scurry around and get the first available slot on the West Coast, which was at San Francisco. This put their whole statutory inspection schedule in disarray, and I think they thought the underwater would be from the time of the actual drydocking, not in years from newbuild original, so it came up unexpectedly months earlier than NCL anticipated.

Great explanation as always!

AIS is showing her destination as PH drydock #4 (the only one she fits in), and she has been there before, so they could have gotten the blocks arranged from previous experience, so she is ready to go in around 1300-1400 local time. I just looked up the specs on DD #4, and it only takes 3 hours to dewater, and 2 hours to flood, so if all goes well they would have about 27 hours to clean and inspect. Pretty ambitious, I'd love to watch that one.

It's cheaper than an actual drydocking, which is why most shipping companies will do this for the mid-period drydock interval. All ships are supposed to drydock "twice in 5 years". But ships less than 15 years old can substitute an underwater survey for the midperiod exams (2.5 years, 7.5 years, 12.5 years). It does take time, usually a ship will do this over 2-4 turn-around port calls, but I believe POA is at the end of its statutory window (six months either way of 2.5 years) so need to do it quickly, and there may be problems with doing a dive survey at Pier 2 in Honolulu. The problem stemmed from the POA contracting with BAE to do their last drydocking in Honolulu (back in 2015, I think), and then the Navy pre-empting the time slot for the drydock (and Navy drydockings typically last months), so POA had to scurry around and get the first available slot on the West Coast, which was at San Francisco. This put their whole statutory inspection schedule in disarray, and I think they thought the underwater would be from the time of the actual drydocking, not in years from newbuild original, so it came up unexpectedly months earlier than NCL anticipated.

I meant actually using a Naval Shipyard dry dock. With the back log of maintenance on navy ships and only 4 naval ship yards left (and Portsmouth only for the bubble head boats) they must have to pay a pretty penny to get a time slot. (whenever it ends up being).

I meant actually using a Naval Shipyard dry dock. With the back log of maintenance on navy ships and only 4 naval ship yards left (and Portsmouth only for the bubble head boats) they must have to pay a pretty penny to get a time slot. (whenever it ends up being).

I don't think it is all that out of line with other US drydock costs, or the ship would just have a repo cruise to SF and back and use the dock there.

I was on the March 3rd trip that got cut short and I am not convinced that this was last minute dry dock. Consider this; if there are roughly 2,750 passengers on the ship, how did NCL find over 1200 hotel rooms in 4 hotels on Waikiki Beach in an area where hotel rooms are hard to come in such a short time?

On a positive note, we stayed in the Hyatt Regency which was a fabulous hotel.

I do stand corrected, they did actually dry dock her Friday night, and she got wet again Saturday night. A very fast drydocking, haven't seen anything that quick ever before, they may have just got a window in between Navy vessels.

I do stand corrected, they did actually dry dock her Friday night, and she got wet again Saturday night. A very fast drydocking, haven't seen anything that quick ever before, they may have just got a window in between Navy vessels.

Chief - Any opinions or speculation regarding the actual vs swim around?

Chief - Any opinions or speculation regarding the actual vs swim around?

Not sure why. I know there were some regulatory problems when her 2015 docking was delayed to 2016, but that was a 3-1/2 week docking so it should have had enough time to be a "docking for credit" (sometimes unplanned dockings are not inspected as statutory ones, just to keep the schedule right). Maybe they feel that she was growing a bit of marine fouling (grass, barnacles) due to her relatively sedate itinerary (only 60 hours a week underway), and she got a water blast to clean the hull. It used to be common to have divers clean the hull with powered carts with scrubbers, but the number of places that still allow this are dwindling (it can introduce non-native marine life where it is done, and it tends to remove some paint, which has toxins in it to prevent the fouling). They may have done an underwater survey and found that there was sufficient growth to prevent the surveyor from seeing what he needed to see, so they had to clean the hull anyway. Now that I think on it, hull growth is probably the most likely reason.