Sea Trials are a critical waypoint in the construction program of any ship. It is of course, first and foremost a time to test out all the technical vessel elements. Does it go from point A to point B? What is its speed? How much fuel does it consume? Etc. But it is also a time when one can assess the overall design and progress of the public areas. (more…)
I’ve returned from an amazing week.
The week started with me traveling to Oslo while Hull Number 1363 (soon to be named Oasis of the Seas) was leaving Turku and heading for an area of the North Sea just off the coast of Sweden. (more…)
Hull Number 1363 (soon to be known as Oasis of the Seas) has just completed her sea trials and is now back at her berth in Turku. Most of the trials were a terrific success. The ship performed her various tests very well and everyone is very excited.
BUT, we had one nasty surprise early this morning. I previously mentioned that we were thinking of adding an aerostat to the ship and were doing a test to see if it was practical/desirable. It required a lot of temporary rigging but they managed to put a test balloon on the ship. Here is a picture of the ship leaving Turku with the aerostat attached.
Then this morning, something happened and the balloon broke free. It ended up in the water and we are now taking steps to recover it and determine what happened. This is precisely why we do such tests (and why I don’t take credit until we know whether or not they are successful).
The experience onboard during the sea trials was amazing. I look forward to writing about it soon.
Next week, I leave for the OASIS sea trial. Sea Trials for a ship are just what they sound like . . . taking the ship out to sea to make sure she operates properly in the ocean. The ship has been afloat for six months, but this is the first time that we will get to test out all the systems in a fully operating environment. The trial lasts about four days and the ship is tested for many key operating performance factors. The primary purpose is to test out those aspects of the ship that can’t be tested at the pier such as speed, noise, vibration, seakeeping etc. I am excited to see and feel how well the ship performs as we put her through paces.
In my last posting, I mentioned all the intense work going on to prepare the systems, processes and procedures to destroy lines and eliminate hassles. This is the first of several postings to get more specific about some of those steps.
