Cruise Industry News Quarterly: Spring 2004, Mar 2004

Opening the Doors to 246 New Balconies

Within one hour after the 76,000-ton Costa Victoria arrived at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven, the results of several months of pre-planning, engineering and sub-assembly prefabrication work moved into high gear, as cutouts began in the ship’s outside walls of the 242 cabins that would receive balconies.

Rolf Ludeman, Lloyd Werft’s project manager for the Costa Victoria project, recalled that in mid-2003, Costa Crociere “introduced their idea to us and asked us to install balconies on the ship. We put a good team together with Costa and worked out how the project could be managed, how much time would be needed, and what the price would be.” The objective was to add balconies to 242 outside cabins on decks nine and 10, plus installing balconies in the four minisuites forward on deck 11.

In 98 of the cabins, the bed locations required complete conversions since the beds blocked the balcony door access. The remaining 148 cabins receiving new balconies required no interior changes.

HVAC Considerations
The affect of outside cold, heat or humidity on cabins with balconies can often affect HVAC systems when passengers leave balcony doors open. One solution is typically to have automatic shutoffs for cabin ventilation systems if balcony doors are open. “We discussed that with Costa, and because of their good experience on their other ships, they asked instead for a door closer system,” said Ludeman. Other work contracted by Costa included upgrades to other non-balcony cabins and enlarging the pool area on deck 11 to include the addition of a new walkway.

When the preliminary work was completed and the contract signed, the detail work began in late September 2003, and by the end of October, prefabrication of the new structural components began. The yard’s engineering designs called for the prefabrication of the whole balconies in 32 structural units – 16 for the port side and 16 for the starboard side. Among the project’s significant technical challenges was integrating the prefabricated balcony units into the basic structure of the ship. “The width of the superstructure was increased by the balconies, and a little more weight was added, but according to the stability calculations, it was all within limits and was approved by the classification society,” Ludeman said.

During the Costa Victoria’s voyage from Italy to Bremerhaven, Lloyd Werft’s riding crews ripped out all the cabins affected by the balcony upgrade and prepared the cutouts. Upon arrival at the shipyard, the cutout work was immediately followed by the installation of new balcony door frames, balcony doors and other interior work, including new electrical runs for the revised cabin interior layouts, plus new balcony lights. The work schedule, Ludeman said, “was very tight.”

Writing the Book
The floating out of the Costa Victoria on February 4, 2004 ahead of schedule was an accomplishment that “we are very proud of”, said Werner Luken, managing director of Lloyd Werft.

Ludeman reflected on the beginnings of the project when it was still in the concept stage. “The whole project was a challenge, and while we do a lot of things such as ship engine conversions or ship lengthenings, adding balconies in a very short time to a cruise ship in service was something new for us,” he said. Other shipyards have added some balconies to smaller ships and ferries in the past, but those projects were not as extensive as the Costa Victoria. Ludeman recalled Lloyd Werft contacted other yards and shipowners, inquiring if they had done a project like this, but received no technical information. Thus, Lloyd Werft may have written the book on building balconies into a cruise ship in service. As he explained, “Because no one could give me answers, I believe this was the first time so many balconies were added to a ship.”

Ludeman’s maritime experience began at sea sailing on supertankers, and he was the chief engineer on two ships before he redirected his career to shipyard work. “I started 25 years ago at Bremer Vulcan, the parent company which took over Lloyd Werft. I changed over to Lloyd Werft 18 years ago.” As a project manager, he began with smaller projects, and then became one of four managers on the conversion of the QE2 in 1986.

Ludeman reflected: “All projects are challenges because all are different, and that makes life interesting. Today, the Costa Victoria was floated out and is running on its own power. There is some final cleaning work. Tomorrow, on February 5 at 1700 hours, the ship will be redelivered to Costa two days before the contract delivery date.”

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