Costa Voyager

The ship as Costa Voyager

Costa Voyager Olympic Voyager Olympia Voyager Grand Voyager Voyager

Germanischer Lloyd Since February 2011, Registro Italiano Navale

IMO no. 9183506

The Chinese Taishan belongs to a top speed of over 27 knots the fastest cruise ships in the world. She was commissioned as the first new construction project of the Greek shipping company Royal Olympic Cruise Lines as Olympic Voyager into service in June 2000. Finally, the ship of the Italian cruise line Costa Crociere was operated. End of March 2014 bought the Chinese shipping Bohai Ferry ship.

• 2.1 capacity
• 2.2 Hull
• 2.3 machinery and drive

History

Construction and commissioning

The ship was laid on 8 July 1998 at the Blohm Voss shipyard in Hamburg as hull number 961 at Kiel. For the shipyard this project was the first construction of a passenger ship after 44 years. Working with our client, a Greek shipping company Royal Olympic Cruise Lines, the shipyard had agreed an unusually high travel speed. The launch took place on 14 July 1999 and after completion of the work of the new building was handed over on 15 June 2000 to the owner. On 22 June 2000 the ship in Athens by President Konstantinos Stephanopoulos was baptized in the name of Olympic Voyager and put into service under the Greek flag.

Sister ship is the University Venture Explorer.

Use

The ship was used since its commissioning for cruises in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. In April 2002, the ship was renamed Olympic Voyager. After the shipping company was in financial difficulties, it was sold to Horizon Navigation (Nassau, Bahamas), where the ship under the name Grand Voyager was brought back into service. Chartered in 2004, the Spanish shipping company Iberojet the ship, which ran it as a Voyager to January 2006.

From December 2011 until the fall of 2013 under the name of the ship Costa Voyager of the Italian cruise line Costa Crociere SpA was chartered for cruises in the Red Sea. For this application it was repaired at the shipyard San Giorgio in Genoa for 2.5 million euros, while among other things, the chimney was transformed into the colors of the shipping company ( blue " C" on a yellow background ).

The ship lay until the end of March 2014 in Genoa. In November 2013 was informed the ship would obsolete for several million € in a Genoese shipyard. However, shortly after that it disappeared from the ship list of the Costa website. Mid- February 2014 announced the Bohai Ferry Company of Yantai, the purchase of the Costa Voyager for $ 43,680,000 on. End of March 2014 bought Bohai Ferry the ship, it is currently on the Überführungsfart to China. In May, the ship should be renamed to Zhong Hua Tai Shan and operated in international cruise business.

Incidents

On 14 February 2005 the ship came with more than 700 passengers and crew members between the Balearic Islands and Sardinia during a heavy wind storm with gale-force gusts in distress. Previously, a wave had smashed the windows of the bridge and paralyzed the onboard electronics. Due to the resulting short-circuit the machinery failed. Parts of the ship's interior were destroyed, injured twenty passengers. After an emergency generator had the power partially restored, one of the four main engines started and the ship could be stabilized. On the morning of February 15, 2005 it reached the port of Cagliari in Sardinia. The ship was broken up on February 13th for a weeklong Mediterranean cruise to Barcelona from Tunis.

On 7 February 2012, came during a cruise in the Red Sea on a fire in a cabin on deck 3 A transmitted in Italian alarm announcement, there was a panic. Passengers stormed the applied life jackets on the corridors where they were reassured by the crew and again asked back to their cabins. As a result of the fire had occurred in the affected cabin also a caused by the sprinkler system water damage. According to the captain, the situation was always under control and the crew had responded immediately. The ship was able to continue his journey.

Ship Technology

Capacity

The ship can carry up to 927 passengers and can carry along with crew and other personnel a total of 1280 people.

Hull

The construction of the hull is based on a process developed and patented by the shipyard hull, the so-called "Fast Monohull " (Eng. faster single hull ). Thanks to the exceptionally aerodynamic shape, the design is characterized by a high efficiency (the yard is a power savings of about 20% ). This hull shape in underwater ship flow values ​​are obtained which are comparable to a submarine, the capsizing stability corresponds to that of a conventional ship. The underside of the hull is hollowed out tunnel-shaped in the course to the rear, whereby inflow and outflow of the closely spaced propeller are optimized.

Machinery and drive

To achieve the required high speeds, the ship with a particularly powerful main power plant was equipped. With a total output of 37,800 kW ( 51 394 hp) it exceeds the engine power of comparable size and measurement Germany ( Reederei Peter Deilmann ) by more than three times.

The system consists of four nine-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines of the type Wärtsilä 46 which are housed in pairs in two engine rooms. The motors drive via reduction gear, two large 4-blade variable pitch propeller ( Manufacturer: KaMeWa ) with a diameter of 5.4 m, whose turning circles are almost touching. The rated speed of the propeller is located at 130 rpm. Hydraulic couplings allow operation in any engine combination. This engine can be shut down for maintenance during operation. With only two engines running the ship already reached speeds of 22 knots. During test runs under full load were achieved (approx. 55.6 km / h ) speeds of over 30 knots.

In addition to the four main engines other auxiliary engines of the Wärtsilä 26 are still installed. Each of the eight-cylinder in-line engines provides 2,000 kW (approx. 2,720 hp).