Topic: Stabilisers and cost of fuel

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

How many miles to the gallon for a 160,000 tonne ship?

You don't want to know. They were playing with a boat on Topgear last week - the £700k kind that has a few berths and a couple of big engines - and they said the mpg on that was right down ... something like 1 or 2 mpg I think. I'm purely guessing, but I would have thought cruiseliners' fuel consumption wouldn't even be worth measuring in mpg!

QUOTE:

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How many miles to the gallon for a 160,000 tonne ship?
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Liz
x

Liz
I was thinking more like 'gallons per mile' so I had a quick google and came up with this little gem.

"At sea, mileage is measured in gallons per mile instead of the more familiar miles per gallon. As an example, the Queen Elizabeth II goes about 29 feet per gallon (just to remember, a nautical mile is about 6070 feet), so this ship would need more than 200 gallons for one sea mile."

Cruise Ships And Miles Per Gallon

cheers
Harvey

QUOTE:

How many miles to the gallon for a 160,000 tonne ship?

You don't want to know. They were playing with a boat on Topgear last week - the £700k kind that has a few berths and a couple of big engines - and they said the mpg on that was right down ... something like 1 or 2 mpg I think. I'm purely guessing, but I would have thought cruiseliners' fuel consumption wouldn't even be worth measuring in mpg!

Crikey. I wish I hadn't asked. I've just found that the Queen Elizabeth II goes about 29 feet per gallon or 125 gallons per km.

There's another website called (I won't put the exact address as it might be removed) nadotoceanadotorg and that says the fuel consumption of a cruise ship is equivalent to 12,000 vehicles.

I wonder whether it would be more environmentally friendly for passengers to fly to a port and then pick up the ship rather than cruising all the way to the Med? I've read a lot about air travel damaging the environment but never anything about cruise ships and the colossal fuel usage.

And the bill for a full tank? I don't suppose they pay Sainsbury's prices but even so, you'd need deep pockets.

BTW the website on that link is really interesting, I'm going to have another look later.
Liz
x

QUOTE:

Liz
I was thinking more like 'gallons per mile' so I had a quick google and came up with this little gem.

"At sea, mileage is measured in gallons per mile instead of the more familiar miles per gallon. As an example, the Queen Elizabeth II goes about 29 feet per gallon (just to remember, a nautical mile is about 6070 feet), so this ship would need more than 200 gallons for one sea mile."

Cruise Ships And Miles Per Gallon

cheers
Harvey

Thanks Harvey, I've just done the same Google and found that. Do you think they take on enough fuel at So'ton for a full two-week cruise?
Liz
x

Hi Liz, yes stabilisers slow the ship down and do use more fuel. It a balance between meeting the schedule, fuel consumption and making the passengers comfortable.

Sea and wind conditions are never the same twice, so it is very difficult for the layman to judge the performance of a ship.

In readers reviews people will sometimes say a ship is not at all stable, unaware that they were in a severe swell which can look relatively calm to the naked eyes. Another time the ship experiences good sea conditions and the passenger of course claim that she is as 'solid as a rock'.;)

BY the way I find that older ship 'move' differently to 'newer' ships. Most newer ships (apart from the QM2) 'judder' in my opinion rather than smoothly rising and falling or smoothly pitching and rolling.;)

QUOTE:

Do you think they take on enough fuel at So'ton for a full two-week cruise?
Liz
x

I here that it does not make sense to carry the weight of two weeks fuel if they can refuel a few times on route. (It uses a lot of fuel to carry a full ship of fuel).

Apparently it depends on the various port facilities and the fact that they have 'deals' with certain suppliers.

I'm sure that when we did our world cruise we were told that, although we refuelled a number of times, Aurora could have done the round trip with only refuelling 3 times. I shall have to look up my journal to be sure, but was amazed at the time. Indeed, ships only travel a few feet on a gallon.

QUOTE:

I here that it does not make sense to carry the weight of two weeks fuel if they can refuel a few times on route. (It uses a lot of fuel to carry a full ship of fuel).

Apparently it depends on the various port facilities and the fact that they have 'deals' with certain suppliers.

I was fairly sure Malcolm would know this one.

I've certainly been on a few two week cruises where the ship has refuelled in a foreign port but I've also been on others where they appeared not to have refuelled. It's normally announced in the daily newspaper with no smoking rule on refuelling side.

Harvey

QUOTE:

Thanks Harvey, I've just done the same Google and found that.
Do you think they take on enough fuel at So'ton for a full two-week cruise?

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! ;)
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