Cruise Ship Motor Replacement Challenges Cascade General

Rhapsody of the Seas receives a new motor, Cascade gets the tough job done two days ahead of schedule

Cascade General Shipyard in Portland has succesfully completed a complex main propulsion motor replacement job. The work on the five-month-old diesel-electric cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas cured a problem which had plagued the ship since it left the builder's yard.

On April 22, just 25 miles into its delivery voyage from the Chantiers de I'Atlantic shipyard in St. Nazaire, France, the starboard propulsion motor of the brand new 917-foot cruise ship overheated. The ship immediately turned around and returned to St. Nazaire.

Rich Steck, manager, public relations for Royal Caribbean International, said that on inspection it was found some of the coils on the motor had burned out. The ship spent a week in St. Nazaire while engineers and technicians shunted past the burned out coils and re-tested the motor. With slightly reduced power, the ship sailed again for New York. On the crossing, however, the motor experienced more problems. More work was done at New York which reduced output on the starboard motor to 50 percent of power.

Workers at Cascade General work carefully to place the 43-ton, 8.5-megawatt replacement motor through a 25-foot by 30-foot hole cut into the side of the Rhapsody of the Seas' hull. Once inside, it was skidded into position.

Time was now critical as the ship was urgently needed for a sold-out cruise season in Alaska. While the reduced power dropped the ship's speed a few knots, the ship was still able to maintain its schedule. After a pair of two-day promotional cruises the Rhapsody of the Seas departed to Miami for more promotional work, then began its regular commercial service on time with a Panama Canal positioning cruise May 19.

Upon arrival on the West Coast, the ship immediately commenced its summer Alaska cruise season, carrying more than 2,000 passengers each week.

However, by August, the balky motor again began to act up. More technicians boarded the ship and the vessel sailed one voyage with reduced speed on a shortened itinerary while additional patch-up work was done.

The repairs were successful but it was equally obvious a permanent solution was required.

A giant Anatov AN-124 cargo jet took off from France for Portland with the 43-ton replacement motor while plans were made to complete the Alaska season. RCI then canceled two Hawaiian cruises in September to free up three weeks of time for the tricky motor replacement job.

On Sept. 15, the 78,000-gross-ton Rhapsody of the Seas arrived alongside Cascade General's Swan Island yard. For the shipyard, it was a brief bonanza. The equally large two-year-old cruise ship Sun Princess had already been booked into the drydock for its first guarantee drydocking and arrived an hour and a half earlier. As the Rhapsody of the Seas tied up, the Sun Princess was already entering the drydock for a nine-day stay.

For the next week, workers began preparatory work dismantling the electric motor. When this work was completed, and with the Sun Princess back in the water, the Rhapsody of the Seas entered the drydock and was lifted out of the water.

Surendra Menon, executive vice-president, production at Cascade General, said "a 25-foot by 20-foot hole was cut in the side of the hull and a transformer had to be removed." Then, using hydraulic jacks the damaged motor was skidded out through the side of the ship. The 43-ton, 8.5-megawatt replacement motor was then skidded into position. According to Menon, there was "zero tolerance and zero clearance." A major limiting factor was a switchboard converter room directly above the motor. This not only limited the height available to work, but also precluded cutting or heat in that area.

Menon beamed, "The work was completed two days ahead of schedule."

The replacement motor had been readily available as it had originally been ordered for a RCI sistership now under construction.

Menon said the new motor performed "beautifully" on sea trials and that "when she left the drydock nothing would stop her."

All work performed by Cascade General was warranty work for the builder's yard and the motor manufacturer, CEGELEC.

RCI's Steck stressed the motor problem was highly unusual. He pointed out that diesel-electric propulsion and electric motors are common features of cruise ships and have proved to be highly reliable. On Oct. 5, the ship resumed its regular schedule, embarking a full complement of passengers in San Diego for a Panama Canal cruise.

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