Topic: Stabilisers and cost of fuel

QUOTE:

When I went on Balmoral to the Canaries in May it was pretty smooth even in rough seas, and Capt Sovdsnes told me he had been using the stabilisers all the way, which surprised me a bit as I thought they would create drag and use a lot of fuel.

Anyone know if that is the case?

Also, last year on IoTS you would have been hard pressed to know you were on a ship unless you looked out of the window as it was very smooth.

However, in June it was very, very bumpy even in the same force winds and a lot of people said they felt sick (I didn't - £3.95 seabands from all good chemists). The only difference seemed to be that on the cruise before mine, the fixipod was damaged on a sandbank and had to be removed so we were travelling on azipods.

I wondered if this meant we couldn't use the stabilisers or is it just that the fixipod creates stability?

And another thing..... we had barely docked back at So'ton before Whitchallenger was alongside refuelling so I wondered how much fuel IoTS holds and if it's enough for a full two-week cruise? How many miles to the gallon for a 160,000 tonne ship?

Thanks in advance to anyone who knows the answers!
Liz
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It's a bit of an indirect comparison though to talk about miles/gallon or gallons/mile as modern ships are electrically driven.

Yes, the generators that 'make' the electricity run on diesel, but they're also powering a floating resort, with 20 or so bars and restaurants, theatres, swimming pools to heat etc, etc.

Hence why the captain gave us a night in port in St. Martin. No way to get into the town there and nothing open anyway. BUT, we were refuelled much later than scheduled, due to rough seas, and the fuel tanker was just below our balcony so no sleep until the early hours for us.

Just wish he had been honest and said that the delay for taking on fuel was down to the weather, and not pretended that he was giving us a night in port!!!

QUOTE:

And the bill for a full tank? I don't suppose they pay Sainsbury's prices but even so, you'd need deep pockets.
Liz
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Its actually you, the passenger, that has the deep pockets to pay for the fuel.......along with the crew, food and everything else.
Brian

QUOTE:

Now you understand why some cruise lines stop at otherwise-crappy ports
Caracas comes to mind! -so they can but fuel at dirt cheap prices! ;)
.

Yes, known as 'technical stops'.;)

Water and provisions are often taken on at favoured ports.

During the QV's Baltic cruise at the beginning of June she had the bunkering tanker alongside in St Petersburg for over six hours. Whilst chatting with one of the officers supervising the refueling he told me that she was taking on over 2500 tonnes of fuel as it was half the cost of the fuel in Southampton. They would, however, need to top up the tanks in So'ton for the Med trip that followed our cruise.

Water was taken on in Copenhagen and Tallin.

Ever since passenger ships were fitted with stabilizers masters have used them in all but the calmest seas as the comfort of passengers is of the highest priority.
i have noticed whilst on a cruise that passengers unhappy with the ships movement will say that the ship is unstable,this is not true a ship at sea is always in a stable condition with a positive GM (unless her cargo shifts) and this would not happen on a cruise ship she may rock and roll a bit (as happened on the Arcadias last cruise to Fjords/iceland) but it is all good fun.

jim

QUOTE:

When I went on Balmoral to the Canaries in May it was pretty smooth even in rough seas, and Capt Sovdsnes told me he had been using the stabilisers all the way, which surprised me a bit as I thought they would create drag and use a lot of fuel.

Anyone know if that is the case?

Also, last year on IoTS you would have been hard pressed to know you were on a ship unless you looked out of the window as it was very smooth.

However, in June it was very, very bumpy even in the same force winds and a lot of people said they felt sick (I didn't - £3.95 seabands from all good chemists). The only difference seemed to be that on the cruise before mine, the fixipod was damaged on a sandbank and had to be removed so we were travelling on azipods.

I wondered if this meant we couldn't use the stabilisers or is it just that the fixipod creates stability?

And another thing..... we had barely docked back at So'ton before Whitchallenger was alongside refuelling so I wondered how much fuel IoTS holds and if it's enough for a full two-week cruise? How many miles to the gallon for a 160,000 tonne ship?

Thanks in advance to anyone who knows the answers!
Liz
x

Hi Liz,
When I worked on QE2 in the Engine Room in the 70's, it was steam turbines in those days (2 of) before it was refitted with diesels.
In order to cross the Atlantic in five days (as we did then) it had to maintain 30 knots. She used to use 500 tons of fuel a day! She had three large boilers which needed a lot of fuel to keep them in steam!The three Turbo Alternators produced enough electricity to power Southampton!
Stabilisers were used most of the time, unless it was really bad weather, gale force and such. When we encountered severe weather, gales etc, we used to bring them in, as to leave them out could end up in them getting them ripped off! You would then have a very large hole in the side of the ship! Two forward and two aft. We would normally have two out, one forward on one side, and one aft on the other.
Hope this answers your question.
Regards,....................... Seismiccruiser

Liz, Good to hear you..

Azipods normally run off electrical generators which are poweered by Fuel Oil or Gas so this would reduce the use of fuel if I'm correct and as they can turn in any direction can propel the ship.\

http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/arti.../article/1167/

QUOTE:

Liz, Good to hear you..

Azipods normally run off electrical generators which are poweered by Fuel Oil or Gas so this would reduce the use of fuel if I'm correct and as they can turn in any direction can propel the ship.\

http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/arti.../article/1167/

Fully agree with you there Rob and there is probably about 15% saving as against conventional engines and props,I can remember before fuel was a sparce commodity large container ships travelling at 26+ knots used 600 tons of fuel oil per day.
jim

Thanks everyone, very interesting. I saw that fuel for cars in Gibraltar was a lot cheaper than the UK so I wondered if we had taken on more there, although it seems unlikely as we were only three days out.

I'd forgotten about the power needed to run the ship on top of the actual travel.

I guess what surprised me most was seeing a YouTube video of the previous cruise to mine in which the fixipod was dismantled in port and taken away on a lorry. We made the same sort of time to our ports without it as with it, only a few small time adjustments on the whole cruise.
Liz
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