Oasis and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

[gatour]

Some pointed out in the Cruise Critic News section, that an Oasis class is too tall to go under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.  I did some research and that does seems to be the case.  I know that when the ships were launched, the top part of the smoke stack was retracted.  However I wouldn't think that would be an ongoing solution as I doubt the smoke stack wouldn't be able to function correctly, or if at all.

 

I wonder what the solution will be.

[Ourusualbeach]

She is having a drydock done prior to sailing from port liberty.  I would imagine they will come up with a permanent long term solution to raise and lower the stack easily. 

[BirdTravels]

On a similar note, the Symphony had to adjust several of her itineraries to account for the water depth at PortMiami. Kinda hard to believe that you would home port in a location that can’t quite accommodate the ship. Don’t want to be on the front page of The NY Times or Miami Herald with a bridge strike or grounding. 

[Clarea]

Just now, BirdTravels said:

On a similar note, the Symphony had to adjust several of her itineraries to account for the water depth at PortMiami. Kinda hard to believe that you would home port in a location that can’t quite accommodate the ship. Don’t want to be on the front page of The NY Times or Miami Herald with a bridge strike or grounding. 

 

Or stopped outside the Verrazzano because the stack mechanism is stuck.

[HBE4]

Just now, Host Clarea said:

 

Or stopped outside the Verrazzano because the stack mechanism is stuck.

 

I was wondering what would happen if the stack mechanism got stuck while still in Bayonne.

 

Maybe spend 7 days sailing in circles around the Statue of Liberty? Sail up and down the Hudson river between the George Washington and Verrazzno Bridges.

[Biker19]

50 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 Sail up and down the Hudson river between the George Washington and Verrazzno Bridges.

And make port stops in three NY boroughs.

[Loonbeam]

She is getting a modification to be able to do this consistently, not sure what it is.  One of the reasons we booked her is to get what should be the closest possible bridge approach.  They are going to have to be far more cognizant of tides than other ships as well as weather conditions so I can say more delays and adjustments than normal.

 

[Ocean Boy]

19 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

And make port stops in three NY boroughs.

I heard they are enlarging the Staten Island ferry terminal in preparation. 

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, Loonbeam said:

She is getting a modification to be able to do this consistently, not sure what it is. 

 

The ship was built from the beginning having funnels with the capability to be lowered to get under the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark.  However, they only needed to do that once, when leaving the shipyard.  I believe they are making changes to enable mechanism to be used reliably on weekly basis.

[Loonbeam]

5 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The ship was built from the beginning having funnels with the capability to be lowered to get under the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark.  However, they only needed to do that once, when leaving the shipyard.  I believe they are making changes to enable mechanism to be used reliably on weekly basis.

 

The rumor I heard was a different mechanism totally was being fitted to allow it, but not sure.   They also could use different scrubbers to save a few inches, could be some combination of the two or something else.

[Ocean Boy]

5 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

 I believe they are making changes to enable mechanism to be used reliably on weekly basis.

More reliably than the mechanisms that control the Aqua Theater?

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

More reliably than the mechanisms that control the Aqua Theater?

 

Ha, that remains to be seen!

 

Maybe they will need those ferries you mentioned as tenders.

[njkruzer]

Remember the Queen Mary 2 does this routinely.  I think she is a little bit taller from the water line than the Oasis so someone has already figured this out.  

[Clarea]

6 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

Remember the Queen Mary 2 does this routinely.  I think she is a little bit taller from the water line than the Oasis so someone has already figured this out.  

 

Sure, but the QM2 was probably designed from the beginning to have repeated down/up cycles on the funnels.  I don't believe Oasis was designed for that, so I'm thinking they need modifications to enable that increased duty cycle on Oasis.

[njkruzer]

4 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Sure, but the QM2 was probably designed from the beginning to have repeated down/up cycles on the funnels.  I don't believe Oasis was designed for that, so I'm thinking they need modifications to enable that increased duty cycle on Oasis.

Yes you are correct.   Just mean that some engineer figured out how to do it.  

[not-enough-cruising]

Maybe they can put elevator mechanisms on the bridge! 🤪🤪

[Capt_BJ]

like this?

[LrgPizza]

When it's time to sail underneath the Verrazano-Narrows, climb up to the highest point you can. I did that on the NCL Escape, and it's truly an amazing thing. You feel like you need to duck. 

[chengkp75]

As for the QM2, she does not have a retractable funnel, she is short enough that by timing the bridge passage with the tides, and using "squat" (the phenomenon where a ship traveling at high speed in shallow water sucks itself down deeper in the water), they make a passage directly in the center of the span.  I believe Oasis and Allure also used "squat" when passing under the Great Belt Bridge.

 

If I remember correctly, either Oasis or Allure was exercising their retractable funnels weekly or monthly even after leaving NYC.  The design was for a permanently retractable funnel, but it was found, as is the case with things like this, that the maintenance cost is too great, and there is a lot of soot leakage.  If the mechanism is exercised regularly (probably more than the once a trip in NYC), and is maintained at each dry dock period, it should not present too much problem (at least no more than Oasis' early azipod issues).

 

The scrubbers are not in the portion of the funnel that retracts, and besides, I believe that RCI uses the "multiple engine" type of scrubber, so the scrubber is alongside the actual exhaust pipes, and the exhaust gets diverted to the scrubber when needed.  The scrubbers are in the section of the funnel where the logo is, the retractable part is just the pipes sticking above this.  The original funnels only retracted 1 meter, and the Verrazzano Bridge is 15' higher than the Great Belt Bridge.

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

... The original funnels only retracted 1 meter, and the Verrazzano Bridge is 15' higher than the Great Belt Bridge.

 

So are you saying that Oasis could make it under the Verrazzano without lowering the funnels, if other conditions were met, i.e., squat and tide?

[BillOh]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

More reliably than the mechanisms that control the Aqua Theater?

Has Symphony specifically had issues with the Aqua theater?

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, Host Clarea said:

 

So are you saying that Oasis could make it under the Verrazzano without lowering the funnels, if other conditions were met, i.e., squat and tide?

It depends on what the minimum clearance is for each bridge.  The Great Belt may have been a "one off" waiver to pass with less than the minimum clearance.  I imagine if I dug through the Harbor Pilot Guide (guide to ports worldwide) that I could find the minimums, but not feeling that ambitious.

[Loonbeam]

When we were on board the Anthem, the crew said that there was about 5 feet to spare before minimum clearance, depending on tides (which looking at photos seems about right, I'd say there's about 15-20 feet total clearance.)

 

According to a non-verified article I just found, the minimum clearance is 13 feet, which aligns with the above.

 

So, the question is.  Is Oasis in normal operating mode 5 feet taller than Anthem?  Quick search turned up nothing.

[xpcdoojk]

52 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

It depends on what the minimum clearance is for each bridge.  The Great Belt may have been a "one off" waiver to pass with less than the minimum clearance.  I imagine if I dug through the Harbor Pilot Guide (guide to ports worldwide) that I could find the minimums, but not feeling that ambitious.

 

Chief, can a ship consistently “squat” the same amount, and if a ship failed to “squat” wouldn’t that mean that a bridge could get wiped out since the ship would be at high speed.  This just seems crazy dangerous for the bridge.  

 

JC

[Loonbeam]

40 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

 

Chief, can a ship consistently “squat” the same amount, and if a ship failed to “squat” wouldn’t that mean that a bridge could get wiped out since the ship would be at high speed.  This just seems crazy dangerous for the bridge.  

 

JC

I'll answer that one, just because I am researching it.  That's why the bridge has a minimum clearance that the ship needs to account for, so if the min clearance is 13 feet, that allows for a safe variance of 3-4 in the squat or other adjustment as it were (13 feet would be a LOT of variance, that's basically 1 1/2 decks additional above below the waterline).  The ship is expected to maintain that 13feet plus in suboptimum conditions, but there's a safety margin