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Star Azipod News and progress

karoo

By karoo,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Vicki'sMom

Vicki'sMom

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I am on the ship and I see no one having meltdowns. True, it has been a long day/night being towed, but we are being very well taken care of. The captain has been wonderful in updating us; the staff is (as always) wonderful and I haven't been near anyone complaining.

 

These last 5 or so cruises have created a PR nightmare for NCL and it will take them some time to recover, but I blame Miami, not the awesome crew on Star!

 

 

 

 

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ema773

ema773

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We are also currently on the ship. There have been no meltdowns and no demonstrations that I have seen. The mood is generally upbeat with lots of passengers discussing their plans once we reach Melbourne.

 

 

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richstowe Great Review Rare

richstowe

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Unfortunately NCL's entry into the Australian market is not going very well at all.
Currently being towed and escorted by 6 vessels, including Coast Guard.
Very impressive ! Talk about making a grand entrance with lots of publicity.

(If you believe all publicity is good publicity :p)

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karoo

karoo

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Very impressive ! Talk about making a grand entrance with lots of publicity.

(If you believe all publicity is good publicity :p)

 

 

Interesting - I am a platinum plus member, everyone knows me as the avid cruiser, but no one ever knew much about the cruise line I cruised with. Now they do! Everyone last night and tonight I spoke to are impressed with the compensation and to them, all they are seeing is people having fun on a cruise ship, even if it's going nowhere. Of course they've had a few laughs about it too. Some people want to sign up for the next one, but I told them all- I'm sure it won't be leaving Auckland this time next week and I can guarantee I'll still be at the dance next Saturday night. Good or bad, I'm sure most Aussies now know about Norwegian Cruise Line.

 

 

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karoo

karoo

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The Star is not going into drydock at the moment.....all we know is parts have been ordered and are on there way.

 

Do people read past posts ,the nearest drydock is in Sydney.

 

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Probably the same people on the Jan 16th cruise who didn't listen to announcements or read written information, booed when the Captain tried to speak, then complained there was a lack of communication.

 

 

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bmwman

bmwman

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The Star is not going into drydock at the moment.....all we know is parts have been ordered and are on there way.

 

Do people read past posts ,the nearest drydock is in Sydney.

 

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Triptolomus - think this clears things up ... parts are on the way!!

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dexddd

dexddd

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Well, I will still debate the "band aid" repair until it is shown that the repairs effected did not meet manufacturer's specifications when completed. I use the example of your car engine. The fan belt breaks, and you replace it. Then the choke solenoid breaks, was the fan belt repair a "band aid"?

 

Now, I will be a bit pedantic here, but the "engines" don't drive the azipods. Electric motors drive the azipods. Electric motors are historically very reliable, which is why they were considered to be a good idea to install in pods (not that you could put a diesel engine in a pod). Given such historical reliability, access to the motors can be limited, but there is access to some areas of the pod (just not while turning) to effect maintenance and repair, as was done in Singapore. On these older style azipods, the only thing that cannot be repaired from inside (except of course a total motor winding burn out) are the thrust bearings and the shaft seal. I haven't seen anything that the latest failures are thrust bearing failures, and you cannot do a "band aid" repair to these, they will either get replaced or they will fail completely. Shaft seal failures are common to shafted propeller systems as well, and are usually from "ingesting" commercial fishing line around the shaft, damaging the seal and causing the lubrication oil to leak out. These can normally be repaired in the water using divers.

 

Now you come to the great control system for azipods. These control systems are also common to the electric motors used to drive the propellers on ships with shafted propellers. Ship's generators generate power at one frequency, 60 Hz, just like shore power, so electric motors run at fixed speeds (typically 1800rpm or 3600 rpm depending on how they are wound). But propulsion motors (whether in pods or not) run at variable speed to adjust the speed of the ship. How do we do that? They take the 10,000v 60 Hz power generated for the ship, transform it down to 800v 60Hz in a transformer (actually two per pod), then take that power and convert it to 1000v DC, and reconvert it back to 800v but with a variable frequency (done by semi-conductors in a unit called an inverter) so the propeller can turn at variable speed. As with the transformers, there are two inverters per pod. Each transformer/inverter set provides 50% of the power for the pod motor, so failure of one only reduces the available power by 50%. All of this electrical equipment is up inside the ship.

 

Now, you get to the azimuthing system, where electric motors drive hydraulic pumps, which in turn drive hydraulic motors which turn the pod assembly to face the direction needed to steer the ship. This system has a redundant system as well. All of this machinery is up in the ship.

 

So, what has failed each time that the pods went down? Motor, thrust bearing, shaft seal, transformer, inverter (power SCR's, or control circuit boards), azimuthing system? I can't say, but it is highly unusual for these systems, which are required to be inspected by third party (class society) and serviced every drydocking, and the maintenance program to meet the manufacturer's and class society's standards for reliability, to fail repeatedly as they have on the Star. Especially when you think that the thrust bearing/shaft seal modules renewed in drydock came from another ship, and the ones removed get serviced and sent to the next ship that needs them. I'll dispute the "band aid" theory, and going back to the car example above, when the fan belt broke, would you think to replace the choke solenoid, unless there was historical evidence that it was likely to fail soon. Again, you fix what's broke, and you maintain what has historically had a service life, but you can't go and just willy nilly change everything because it "might" break.

 

Believe me that drydocking is not the end all and be all for ship repairs.

 

As always, thanks for the info. The question that has been bothering me is what happened after the last drydock with the pods where you'd think all was good but then it had to go back to drydock again?

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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As always, thanks for the info. The question that has been bothering me is what happened after the last drydock with the pods where you'd think all was good but then it had to go back to drydock again?

 

Not sure whether it was one pod or two, but I would suspect that it was the thrust bearing/shaft seal module was damaged during the installation or improperly installed. A bit surprised about that, as ABB usually has a rep there to supervise, and check it before use. It could also be that they "ingested" some fishing line in the seals, causing leakage, and this could have happened anywhere along the California or Mexican coast, and happens to ships frequently.

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doublebzz

doublebzz

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Not sure whether it was one pod or two, but I would suspect that it was the thrust bearing/shaft seal module was damaged during the installation or improperly installed. A bit surprised about that, as ABB usually has a rep there to supervise, and check it before use. It could also be that they "ingested" some fishing line in the seals, causing leakage, and this could have happened anywhere along the California or Mexican coast, and happens to ships frequently.

 

Bottom Line - Best guess, and I know it can only be a guess at this point; will the ship make the March 9th cruise? I guess not if drydocking is required.

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geezer466

geezer466

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Bottom Line - Best guess, and I know it can only be a guess at this point; will the ship make the March 9th cruise? I guess not if drydocking is required.

 

Latest news is from Norwegian is the 18th Cruise Ex Auckland will leave on time. Being on the other side of the planet people are travelling over the next few days to spend a few days in NZ before embarking.

Some queried the NCL UK office and were told there was no information that they should not travel.

 

I guess the on board engineering team have already stripped out a lot of the parts needing replacement in the hours it was under tow.

 

Their reluctance to repair unit one can be explained by them not wanting to tie the ship up for 3,4 or 5 days and completely ruin one of the planned legs. Of course the other day unit 2 failed meaning they now have no choice but to berth the ship for a few days and conduct the repairs.

 

These repairs will be routine for these guys. Old failed parts out new parts in.

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