The Canadian yard’s cruise business is performing well and should get a boost with the arrival of a new drydock
To start off the cruise ship season, Seaspan’s Vancouver Drydock welcomed the Roald Amundsen, a hybrid expedition cruise vessel owned by Hurtigruten Expeditions, which had visited in the yard on two previous occasions. The vessel stopped by in early July for a short four-day visit, allowing the Seaspan team to complete minor repairs while the operator conducted in-water repairs alongside the drydock.
Meanwhile, Seaspan’s Victoria Shipyard welcomed the cruise ship Norwegian Sun and successfully replaced the vessel’s bulbous bow in the Government of Canada-owned Esquimalt Graving Dock, earlier this year. According to Seaspan, this was a complex project that had to be completed within a tight time scale. Nonetheless, the company adds, it was finished on time and on budget thanks to its skilled team.
The volume of cruise ship repair and refurbishment work handled by Seaspan to date is broadly in line with prior years, with the cruise season only just beginning for the Pacific Northwest. Looking ahead, Seaspan reports that it has at least two other cruise repair and maintenance projects planned for later in the year, at both Vancouver Drydock and Victoria Shipyards.
Paul Hebson, vice president and general manager at Vancouver Drydock, says: “There has certainly been an increase in the number of expedition cruise vessels that are docking on the West Coast, particularly at the start and the end of the cruise season, when vessels like to be well prepared and undergo maintenance to be ready for the next season. We have a positive reputation at Seaspan with cruise ship owners and have been able to capitalise on that.”
Some notable investment projects should strengthen Seaspan’s position in this niche market still further. Vancouver Drydock has recently acquired a new floating drydock which will increase operational flexibility and provide additional capacity to work on more cruise ships at the yard. Seaspan’s new drydock recently arrived in Vancouver Harbour on board a heavy lift ship and, with some help from three Seaspan tugboats, it is now anchored near the city’s Ironworkers Memorial Bridge as it awaits a new paint job.
This drydock is part of a planned expansion of Vancouver Drydock and will increase Seaspan’s capacity for ship repair projects by about 30%.
The new drydock is the larger of two that Seaspan has planned, and both will be installed following the construction of a work pontoon, and other in-water works such as the installation of piles.
Both repair yards in Vancouver and Victoria have also invested in automatic pipe spool welding technology to improve quality standards and shorten the production time of pipe spools. This will also have benefits for cruise and ferry customers at the two yards.
