Two-billion-euro assignment: building of the biggest floating resorts in the world

Aker Yards, Turku has in its order book two huge luxury cruise vessels of the Genesis class to be delivered for Royal Caribbean in 2009 and 2010. Colossal and overwhelming are words that have been used to describe these giants. And the truth is they will be the world's largest cruise vessels taking an enormous step into the future with their bold design, daring innovation and technological advancements - with a price tag of two billion euro.

Almost a full quarter mile

Even though Aker Yards is experienced in building the world's largest ships - three vessels in the Freedom class - thorough preparations are on their way when starting the building of the even larger Genesis class vessels. Those will be 47 meters wide and 360 meters long, i.e. 40 m longer than the height of the Eiffel tower! Height over the water line will be 65 m.

Huge 3-dimensional puzzle

Building of this big challenge has been compared to putting together a huge 3-dimensional puzzle. One vessel consists of 180 grand blocks, the biggest one being 22 m in length, 30 m in width and weighing 600 tons! The vessel's weight is 12 times the weight of the Eiffel tower.

30,000 drawings
 

Design is also well on its way, with some 500 designers involved at the moment. Actually, it started already a couple of years before signing the contract. The conceptual design was done by Aker Yards in cooperation with Royal Caribbean. Half of the basic design is technical solutions, requiring also special know-how from Aker Yards, and done in house. The other half is approval and classification drawings, which come either with the turnkey deliveries or from our design supplier network. Already the basic design results in some 3,000 drawings. The detail engineering - i.e., the workshop drawings - produce as many as 30,000 drawings. These come from the supplier network.

Vast network of professional suppliers

In addition to special know-how and high quality, Aker Yards' competitiveness as a builder of sophisticated cruise ships is based on the surrounding marine cluster. In our business area, a vast network of professional suppliers is a must, as, by themselves, shipyards don't have enough resources to fulfill all the challenges in desired time. Aker Yards is acting on the assembly yard principle, meaning that, in addition to the company's "own" personnel, several partner companies are involved.

The project of two Genesis vessels translates into 12, 000 man-years of work for the yard and partners, i.e. 12 years of work for 1,000 persons. 600 supplier companies are involved, 32 of which are design companies.

Keel Laying and Lucky Coins

The Keel Laying ceremony of a new ship includes the placing of lucky coins under the ships keel before the start of construction. This custom, called ”stepping the mast”, dates from antiquity. At that time, it was customary to provide sailing vessels with lucky coins when they were built to ensure favorable winds for swift sailing and good profits.

When, in autumn 2009, the first Genesis-vessel leaves Turku for Fort Lauderdale, Fl., it will be the biggest export product of Finland ever.

 

Source: http://www.akeryards.com/