Page 13: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 1990)

Avondale To Bid On Construction

Of World's Largest Passenger Ship

U.S. shipbuilder Avondale Indus- tries, Inc., New Orleans, La., has signed an agreement with the World

City Corporation, Oslo, Norway, to prepare and submit a firm offer and delivery schedule for the construc- tion of what would be the world's largest cruise ship.

The 250,000-gt, 5,600-passenger vessel, called the Phoenix World

City, was conceived and developed by Knut Utstein Kloster, chair- man of the World City Corporation.

The Phoenix World City would be three times larger than the largest cruise ship operating today, and if constructed in the U.S., would be the first major passenger ship built by a U.S. yard in more than 30 years.

Albert L. Bossier Jr., chair- man and chief executive officer of

Avondale, said: "Avondale is pleased to be included as part of the team working to bring this historic project to completion. Our company believes that its modular construc- tion techniques and productive la- bor force will enable it to submit a firm offer demonstrating our capa- bility of producing a vessel of this scale and complexity on terms which will be competitive in the world market. "Avondale has participated in in- novative construction projects for ships as well as large scale industrial projects, and the Phoenix World

City project is a continuation of this type of innovative effort."

The Phoenix World City project has been in design and development for more than five years under the leadership of Mr. Kioster, who was founder and chairman of the group now known as Kloster Cruise Lim- ited (owners of Norwegian Cruise

Line, Royal Viking Line, and Royal

Cruise Line). In that capacity, Mr.

Kloster initiated the acquisition of the S/S France and her conversion to the highly successful S/S Nor- way.

Mr. Kloster stated : "The agree- ment with Avondale represents an important step in the development of Phoenix World City. It provides for performance of the extensive shipyard work on which any firm offer for construction of a project of this magnitude must be based, and, even more importantly, it now as- sures that World City will receive a timely offer and fixed delivery schedule, prerequisites for comple- tion of financing arrangements."

The Phoenix World City, which is scheduled to enter service in 1994, will be almost a quarter of a mile long, with a maximum width nearly the length of a football field. One of the many distinctive features of the ship will be three hotel towers con- taining most of the guest accommo- dations, which rise from a three- deck "downtown" area featuring streets and avenues lined with res- taurants and cafes, shops, and gal- leries.

The "floating city" will also fea- ture a large marina within the hull, reached through massive portals in the stern of the ship. Four 400-pas- senger daycruisers—ships them- selves—dock inside the marina and will be deployed at high speeds to and from ports and a variety of des- tinations.

Ron McAlear, project leader of

Avondale's Phoenix World City team, cited a number of factors that have contributed to the company's ability to bid competitively for this project even though construction of large passenger cruise ships has for many years been the exclusive pre- serve of overseas shipyards.

Among the factors cited by Mr.

McAlear are: an extensive Avon- dale program which brought about a transfer of up-to-date technology and methodology from abroad; ma- jor investment in capital equip- ment; wage rates that are competi- tive with those in leading foreign shipyards; the low dollar relative to currencies of major shipbuilding na- tions; long expertise in modular con- struction acquired in offshore, nav- al, and other projects; and develop- ment of enhanced construction techniques for sophisticated Navy ships.

Mr. McAlear added that, if the

Avondale bid is successful, the con- struction of Phoenix World City in the U.S. would generate substantial work not only for ship construction personnel, but for businesses and workers across the country.

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