Page 15: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2000)

Ship Repair & Conversion

Generator Replacement Proves Cascade General Capabilities

Cascade General had its knowledge and expertise put to the test with the emergency replacement of a faulty gen- erator on P&O's Sea Princess. Measur- ing 857 ft. (261.2 m), the vessel, which was built by Fincantieri in 1998, was in drydock at the Portland shipyard for ed inside the engine room to clear approximately nine days in September.

The project began on the vessel's exte- rior with the rigging crew building a 20- ft. loading platform on the drydock floor. Concurrently, work was complet- an exit path for the 47-ton GEC

Alstom generator.

Two of Sea Princess' four propul- sion transformers at 20-tons each, were disconnected and moved

P&O's Sea Princess

Napa Oy

PO Box 322

FIN-00151 Helsinki

Finland

Tel +358 9 22 813 1

Fax +358 9 22 813 800

Onboard-Napa Oy

PO Box 322

FIN-00151 Helsinki

Finland

Tel +358 9 22 813 613

Fax +358 9 22 813 600

For further information, please visit our website at www.napa.fi

E-mail: [email protected]

NAPA Hull Editor

OPERATION £ NAPA and Onboard-NAPA systems are sure to meet your eeds as to ihitial and basic design, initial steel design hydrostatics, damage stability, hydrodynamics, loading and discharging, damage scenarios, computer-based training and decision support.

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Cascade General replaced a faulty generator onboard Sea Princess; the job encompassed just nine days at Cascade's Portland drydock. aside, catwalks lifted and all wiring and piping blocking the exit route labeled and cut. The generator was outfitted with a temporary shaft-support bracket, jacked up and rolled aft on a pair of girders set up as temporary rails. It was subsequently lifted and turned onto a second set of rails running abeam, skid- ded out of the ship and transported by drydock crane and trailer to an assembly bay.

With approximately six mm of clear- ance between the generator's 20-ton rotor and 27-ton stator, they were care- fully separated using an overhead crane and a high-capacity tri-lifter.

On the fifth day of construction, the generator was returned to the engine room, allowing the bulkhead to be sealed up. The 2,100 volt transformers were then skidded into position and secured - followed by the hull insert welded into place. It was then ultrasoni- cally tested, inspected and approved by

RINA.

During this drydocking, Cascade also overhauled Sea Princess' bowthrusters, sea valves, seachests and strainers, pre- pared and coated the underwater and surface areas and the topside white. The vessel also had its rudder and propeller shafts inspected, ballast tanks surveyed, and all 16 of its lifeboats and davits recertified.

On its ninth and final day of lay-up, the vessel left Cascade with a revamped generator. Minor additional work was continued en route to San Francisco, upon which the fourth engine was restarted, and full power restored.

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