Page 30: of Marine News Magazine (July 2011)

30MNJuly 2011structural work. The new gearboxes were also fitted with custom mount- ing feet, replicating the previous foundations.The Klondike Express completed sea trials in April and began service on the 26 Glaciers Cruise on May 1. We are extremely happy and the performance is exactly as Incat Crowther predicted, and even better in certain aspects,? said Sommerfeld. We maintain our speed throughout the load range.?The refit actually reduced the ves- sels top speed, Sommerfeld said. We went from a top speed of 38 knots down to 36.5 (light ship). That was expected. But our fully loaded speed with the old engines was 31 knotsand its 34 knots now. So we dont lose speed with the load.?Crowther said they predicted the fully loaded speed with the new engines would actually reach only 33 knots, so the sea trials exceeded expectations.Summerfeld said that with the new gear couplings, reduction gears and re-alligned jets, the boat runs smoother and the engines are qui- eter.? Crowther said his design firm rec- ommended re-engining the boat, rather than refurbishing the original engines, because over the projected life of the boat that was a better costoption in terms of projected mainte- nance costs and fuel consumption.?Most vessel owners find theyre better off refitting with new engines than refurbishing the old, he said. You look at the Klondike, those engineswere 12 years old with a lot of miles,? and a hard service life, running at high speeds working everyday. To rebuild one of those is a huge cost and quite often its better just to pull it outand put another one in.?We probably do [re-engining proj- ects] almost on a monthly basis,?Crowther said. In Australia, for example, theres a company called Fantasy Cruises which probably has a fleet of 12 vessels and weve helped them with the re-engining of their boats.? Each project we do is unique to its location and unique to its owners particular requirements. Obviously fuel consumption has become more of an issue. Were getting a lot of requests from operators to minimize the fuel consumption as far as we can.? In North America, besides some newbuild programs on the East, West and Gulf Coasts. Crowther said Weve been doing a fair bit of work for the Golden Gate Ferries compa- ny,? where the design firm is working on a repowering project for the Mendocino, a 148-ft ferry, also origi- nally designed by Incat Crowther. Refit work on the Klondike Express. Photo courtesy Phillips Cruises & Tours, LLC