OOSTERDAM 'Scuttlebutt'

[Venture]

Their was dockside talk in Victoria last weekend regarding the late arrival of the elegant Oosterdam. Some crew, apparently, stated the ship is in mechanically good condition, the 'technical issues' aboard relate to the conservation of fuel.

The ship has a huge amount of growth on the hull which is having an impact on fuel consumption. The company saved money last fall and did a 'wet dock' in Victoria; that is they did not take the ship out of the water, but did a hull sweep with divers. This did not work well. With Oosterdam being in warm waters all winter, Mexico and Hawaii from San Diego, the growth grew rapidly. Scuttlebutt reports HAL wanted to drydock the ship this fall, but the Victoria Shipyards, 'Esquimalt Drydock' was previously booked.

Oosterdam will proceed to Australia and will be drydocked there in December.

She will have her 'Barnacles Blasted in Brisbane'.

She is a beautiful ship that we have sailed in a number of times...always well maintained,topsides as well as within. HAL,as all major cruise lines, are attempting in this very hard financial period, to 'keep their head above water', and fuel is a great expense. I am sure that HAL do not want to add a fuel surcharge to our booking price.

[Boytjie]

Thanks for the update.

 

I wonder if it will calm down the Nervous Nellies?!

[edmusic]

Very interesting. Makes sense. Thanks for the update.

[cjm66]

Thanks for the scuttlebut. It makes sense. I appreciate the difficulty of removing barnacles and other growths while in the water having attempted this on a much smaller vessel at a mooring in Sydney Harbour.

 

Colleen

[localady]

If she just needs her barnacles blasted, that is really great news!! :D

You would think she'd freeze those babies off while in Alaska ;)

 

I can imagine it is a tad less expensive than having to replace a Pod or some such. :eek:

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for this news.

[kazu]

Thanks very much - it makes a lot of sense. I love the barnacles busted line:)

[TheEmerson]

I was on the Behind the Scenes tour on 5/12 while sailing to Victoria and here is what I noted from the Engine Control Room and a few questions asked. All questions about the delay into Victoria was not answered with exact information. Just general we are going as fast as we can.

 

Diesel Engine 1-4 was online

Diesel Engine 5 was offline

Turbine 1 was offline

Port Azipod was the predominate trust (Approx 90%)

Starboard Azipod was in a reduced trust state. (Approx 30%)

One Diesel Engine Cylinder Head was on A Deck waiting to be offloaded for a rebuild.

 

Now, does anything mean anything concrete, no. But it is what I noticed other than the ECR does have an espresso machine like Neptune while the Bridge has a coffee maker and a water kettle.

[magandab]

Thanks for the update.

 

I wonder if it will calm down the Nervous Nellies?!

 

Maybe, maybe not. It seems that the answers from HAL range all over the place about why the cancellation and drydock are occurring. The non-statements are worthy of a politician, IMO.

 

I'm not saying that HAL is putting anyone in danger as I absolutely do not believe they would ever do that. I am not cancelling my cruise, either.

 

But I am also not basing my feelings on scuttlebutt based on dockside chatter where crew "apparently" said something.... or maybe didn't.

[Typhoon1]

Those that want to continue to believe the Oosterdam is falling apart will continue to insist it is poorly maintained.

 

No matter what condition it is in.

[capnlars]

I was on the Behind the Scenes tour on 5/12 while sailing to Victoria and here is what I noted from the Engine Control Room and a few questions asked. All questions about the delay into Victoria was not answered with exact information. Just general we are going as fast as we can.

 

Diesel Engine 1-4 was online

Diesel Engine 5 was offline

Turbine 1 was offline

Port Azipod was the predominate trust (Approx 90%)

Starboard Azipod was in a reduced trust state. (Approx 30%)

One Diesel Engine Cylinder Head was on A Deck waiting to be offloaded for a rebuild.

 

Now, does anything mean anything concrete, no. But it is what I noticed other than the ECR does have an espresso machine like Neptune while the Bridge has a coffee maker and a water kettle.

 

 

I was on the same tour. I asked the question about whether one side was putting out more thrust than the other side (we had an aft corner and it was pretty obvious from the wake patterns). Once we were in open water, we were still doing between 21 and 22 knots according the to map on the tv every time I looked on the TV betweek Ketchikan and Victoria. We were doing 21 when the NCL ship went by. I've read that 24 knots is top speed, with 22 as cruising speed.

[sail7seas]

And the point is?

[Opinions]

Those that want to continue to believe the Oosterdam is falling apart will continue to insist it is poorly maintained.

 

No matter what condition it is in.

 

Those that want to continue to believe the Osterdam is in great shape will continue to insist it is properly maintained.

 

No matter what condition it is.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Their was dockside talk in Victoria last weekend regarding the late arrival of the elegant Oosterdam. Some crew, apparently, stated the ship is in mechanically good condition, the 'technical issues' aboard relate to the conservation of fuel.

The ship has a huge amount of growth on the hull which is having an impact on fuel consumption. The company saved money last fall and did a 'wet dock' in Victoria; that is they did not take the ship out of the water, but did a hull sweep with divers. This did not work well. With Oosterdam being in warm waters all winter, Mexico and Hawaii from San Diego, the growth grew rapidly. Scuttlebutt reports HAL wanted to drydock the ship this fall, but the Victoria Shipyards, 'Esquimalt Drydock' was previously booked.

Oosterdam will proceed to Australia and will be drydocked there in December.

She will have her 'Barnacles Blasted in Brisbane'.

She is a beautiful ship that we have sailed in a number of times...always well maintained,topsides as well as within. HAL,as all major cruise lines, are attempting in this very hard financial period, to 'keep their head above water', and fuel is a great expense. I am sure that HAL do not want to add a fuel surcharge to our booking price.

 

I don't think they can add a fuel surcharge because the barnacles on the hull are reducing fuel efficiency. (And yes, if the ship has lots of barnacles, it affects the amount of fuel used.) I think the fuel surcharge is tied to the price of crude, not the ship's "mpg."

[Copper10-8]

Aha, it's the old Victoria Barnacle caper....................kinda like Cleveland's kleptomaniac Claude Cooper copper clapper caper:cool:

[cruisinjudy]

aha, it's the old victoria barnacle caper....................kinda like cleveland's kleptomaniac claude cooper copper clapper caper:cool:

 

 

lol!

[erewhon]

Their was dockside talk in Victoria last weekend regarding the late arrival of the elegant Oosterdam. Some crew, apparently, stated the ship is in mechanically good condition, the 'technical issues' aboard relate to the conservation of fuel.

The ship has a huge amount of growth on the hull which is having an impact on fuel consumption. The company saved money last fall and did a 'wet dock' in Victoria; that is they did not take the ship out of the water, but did a hull sweep with divers. This did not work well. With Oosterdam being in warm waters all winter, Mexico and Hawaii from San Diego, the growth grew rapidly. Scuttlebutt reports HAL wanted to drydock the ship this fall, but the Victoria Shipyards, 'Esquimalt Drydock' was previously booked.

Oosterdam will proceed to Australia and will be drydocked there in December.

She will have her 'Barnacles Blasted in Brisbane'.

She is a beautiful ship that we have sailed in a number of times...always well maintained,topsides as well as within. HAL,as all major cruise lines, are attempting in this very hard financial period, to 'keep their head above water', and fuel is a great expense. I am sure that HAL do not want to add a fuel surcharge to our booking price.

 

Thank you for reporting this information.

[c-legs]

Improper or/and untimely hull maintence defenitely modifies the ship's propulsion efficiency...HAL thinks it saved $$$ by subbing a proper drydock with a wetdock......

 

A 90-30 ratio of azipod trusts between starboard and port IS not a good sign. If the master and his chief engineer feel one pod ought to be trusted at 30% only while in open seas on an already tight schedule ( inbound Victoria calls have always been a challenge to punctually acheive in the 1st place...)then there is an issue.

For Oosty, it is not the first time.... Again, HAL thinks it is saving $$$ by not facing up to this, an issue that the past 10 years have demonstrated can get only worse with time...it cannot be ''fixed'' by simply soft-touching the ailing azipod trust bearing.

 

By the way, the initial Victoria calls this season have all been ''late''. Westy docked ~~ 21;00hr....NCL was a weebit late as well.

As those calls are severely time-restricted to start with....perhaps it's time for all lines to re-examine how they handle this PVSA requirement...and perhaps discharge their responsability with a PrinceRupert call, which appeared in the past to be a bit easier to operate.

NCL has done it...

 

 

My opinion.

Cheers