If You Build It, They Will Cruise
A behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build a cruise ship.
Have you ever looked around a cruise ship and wondered. "How in the world to do they build this?" From the lightning and the plumbing to the logistics and the sheer size. It's hard to imagine where one would even start. The construction of a major cruise ship is a technically demanding task, but it also requires highly skilled project and finance management teams.
THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING Three European shipbuilding groups — Fincantieri in Italy, Meyer in Germany and Finland, and STX in France — dominate the market. Each has decades of experience in cruise ship building as well as the chains of suppliers and contractors in place who play a big role in the successful completion of today’s highly innovative cruise ships.
Meanwhile, six major cruise line companies— Carnival Corporation & plc, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. ( RCCL); Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings ( NCLH); Genting Hong Kong in the Far East; MSC Cruises, which is headquartered in Geneva; and TUI Cruises in Hamburg — dominate cruising’s newbuild order book.
The way ships are built has changed quite a bit over the past five decades. When the cruise industry was in its infancy in the late 1960s, nobody had much experience as to what kinds of ships should cater to middle America. Consequently, they relied on outside help. Knud E. Hansen, the Danish naval architects and consultants, designed the first duo of Norwegian ships, and Wartsila, the Finnish engineering group that, at the time, was also a shipbuilder, offered RCCL a design based on the 1967-built overnight ferry, Finlandia.
Today, everything is very different. The major cruise shipping groups know their customers. This means it is the cruise line, rather than the shipyard, that sets the pace in the design process and selection of equipment, although cooperation with the shipyard continues to play an important role.
THE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS _ The initial steps to building a cruise ship begin when designers use software that enables them to produce three-dimensional drawings and images of the planned vessel. These digital drawings are also useful later on, when the ship comes due for a refit, as it’s easier to find details of areas to be changed. Plus, paper drawings could be lost, which could cause a lot of headache.
Before construction starts, various models, which are based on the drawings, will be made to test features such as the performance of the hull in a test tank and flow of exhaust from the funnel in a wind tunnel. This allows necessary adjustments to be made to obtain the best results.
During construction, a cruise ship– building yard resembles a car-assembly plant in the way that supplies, components, parts, and materials arrive from a large number of sources and everything comes together at the shipyard. Throughout the process of building a ship, the aim is to fit ready units in place whenever possible.
Therefore, ships are actually built in large blocks that often weigh hundreds of tons. By the time a block is ready to be placed in its location, a lot of work, which doesn’t show to the outside, has already been done such as ducting and piping.
Meyer Werft in Germany has a huge hall that allows an entire ship to be built indoors, which is obviously more comfortable to the workers, but also allows faster executing of the project. For example, painting can be carried out regardless of the weather and lighting conditions will remain stable throughout the year.
Likewise, because it’s easier to work at a workshop than aboard the ship, cabins (apart from large suites) are also modular and have all piping and ducting pre-installed. There are even toilet seats attached to walls and curtains hanging by the windows when they are brought on board.
BY THE NUMBERS _ The sheer volume of items involved in the fitting out means that project management is an absolutely vital skill in the successful completion of a cruise ship construction project. All materials and parts should arrive when they are needed. If they arrive too early, they will wait on the quayside, take up valuable space, and need to be paid for earlier than necessary. A late delivery of materials can cause major problems with the timetable of the project as well heavy penalties to the shipbuilder. All installation work needs to be planned carefully so that whatever has been installed doesn’t have to be taken out to make way for something else and then put back again.
Interestingly, the steel hull only accounts for about a quarter or a fifth of the value of the completed vessel. It is the fitting out that accrues most of the cost and involves the largest numbers of people.
Weight of materials is another major factor. Excess weight will increase fuel consumption and, in an extreme case, even compromise the stability of the ship. So durability and cost add to the matters that need to be examined carefully.
Another consideration that goes into the shipbuilding process is that all materials that are used on board a ship in international trade must be approved by the International Maritime Organization, the United Nation’s London-based maritime organization responsible for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution. As fire safety is a major concern ashore, it’s of even greater importance at sea, where no emergency services are available.
Designers and builders also need to comply with regulations set by the nation whose flag the ship will fly; of the classification society to whose rules it is being built; and also of the U.S. Coast Guard. Therefore, the cruise company owner has its own on-site teams closely involved with a newbuilding project, which helps the master and senior engineering personnel familiarize themselves with their future vessel from the early stages of its construction. Managing the finances is another challenge the shipyard faces. The owner usually only pays 20 percent of the price when the contract is signed and the rest upon delivery of the ship. The yard, however, will have to pay its contractors and suppliers at a higher frequency, which means that it must have the working capital in place to ensure smooth running of the project. A business failure anywhere in the chain of suppliers and contractors (and this has happened) can again result in a major headache. Consequently, long-term business relationships are highly valued.
By ordering more than one vessel of the same class, both owner and builder can benefit from the experiences gained from the previous units of the same class. For example, in the case of Carnival Corporation, the same basic design has been shared by a number of its brands. The interiors of each vessel are tailored for the brand it belongs to, but technical areas are shared with other vessels in order to save money.
Indeed, there’s no shortage of logistics when it comes to building a cruise ship. So the next time you’re sailing, be sure to take a look around and admire the intricate details around every corner, and imagine all the steps that led up to the completion of cruising’s modern marvels.