Cascade General On Schedule For Cruise Ships

The end of summer in the Pacific Northwest brings with it the busiest month of the year at Cascade General, operators of Portland Shipyard. When the Alaska cruising season comes to a close in October, as many as fifteen, cruise ships will be heading south to re-position in the Caribbean and South Pacific. With the largest dry dock in the Americas, Drydock 4 at 982', Cascade General is in demand to perform maintenance and repair work on many of these vessels.

In addition, tighter schedules in the cruise industry have made this three-week window the only time available for major upgrades to the fleet. Management at Cascade General has learned to work within this strict time limit. "We've handled as many as three cruise ships at one time and this fall we will be drydocking the Dawn Princess, the Veendam and the Regal Princess for a complete, stern thruster installation." explained Cascade General Executive Vice-President and cruise ship specialist Suren Menon. "

"This requires the kind of coordination and total effort that's become our trademark," he added. With extensive experience in the industry including time as a ship's engineer and design and estimation work, Menon has also become an expert in coordinating the high-fashion demands involving furnishings and re-styling. The tight, management structure at Cascade gives him hands-on control of all these projects in a process that begins many months in advance.

The preparations include assembling numerous sub-contractors from around the U.S. in craft specialties like teak decking and pool tiling, and arranging for the timely delivery of vast quantities of carpeting and furniture. In the shipyard proper, items like cabin-deck extensions and thruster tubes are pre-fabricated and ready-to-go when the ship arrives. Within days of completion, these craft will be embarking thousands of passengers, so delays are simply not acceptable.

This will be the third, turnkey, sternthruster addition that Cascade General has made to a Princess Cruises ship to enable it to visit more remote and exotic harbors. It's the type of challenge the yard thrives on, building a world-wide reputation for outstanding service to the cruise lines.

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Cascade General operates Portland Shipyard, the largest and most complete ship repair and industrial facility on the West Coast of the United States. We provide full-service repairs and conversions for tankers, cruise ships, bulk carriers, container ships, government vessels, tugs, barges and workboats. Cascade General's Portland facility includes a 60-acre (24.2 ha) yard, 550,000 square feet (51,096 square meters) of craft shops, more than 7,600 ft. (2,326 meters) of full-service repair berths, and two floating dry docks.