Page 25: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 1997)

St.Nazaire when the electric motor overheated.

No passengers were aboard, and the ship returned to St. Nazaire under its own power. A team of

Royal Caribbean technicians and representatives of electrical equip- ment supplier Cegelec assembled at Chantiers de l'Atlantique to review the damage and estimate repair time.

On May 23, Rhapsody made cruise history when it traversed the Panama Canal. At 915 x 105.6- ft. (278 x 32.1-m), the 78,491-ton vessel is the largest cruise ship ever to transit the canal. At this time the month-old ship was mid- way through its maiden voyage which began in Miami and conclud- ed in Los Angeles on June 1, at which time the vessel was officially named.

Rhapsody was scheduled to begin its regular season June 14, with seven-night sailings out of

Vancouver, visiting Juneau,

Skagway, Sitka, Ketchikan and

Misty Fiords in the Inside Passage.

Joining sistership Legend of the

Seas, which has sailed Alaskan waters since 1995, Rhapsody will be the largest cruise ship operating in Alaska.

The ship cruises at a speed of 22 knots, and is equipped with two bowthrusters, one stern thruster and two stabilizers.

New Ferry Stability Rules

Enter Force

New ferry and passenger ship safety regulations from the

International Maritime

Organization (IMO), and directly resulting from the loss of the

Estonia in 1994, recently became effective.

Amendments to the

International Convention for the

Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, concentrate particularly on the stability of RoRo ferries. But the stability requirements for existing vessels are being phased in so ships with 85 percent of a sta- bility value set by the IMO will not be required to comply fully until

October 1, 1998.

Ships already reaching 97.5 per- cent of the AAmax mathematical stability formula will be required to comply fully by October 1, 2005.

A new regulation has also been introduced for RoRo passenger ships carrying more than 400 pas- sengers, intended to ensure vessels can survive without capsizing if two compartments are flooded after damage.

An artist's rendering of Grand Princess. The ship was launched in late May at Fincantieri. For more information, see story onprevious page.

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