operator profile
does the technical management. The overhaul was planned to get a more efficient operation from both fuel and lubes. Ms Bratton said, “We were burning too high a level of lubes as well because the engines needed an overhaul. It is all about fuel efficiency, emissions, utilisation of lubes and just wear and tear on the vessel.”
The ship is on charter from
Travel Dynamics out of New York and there are a number of options to extend it up to 20 years as well as to buy the ship. Orion II is the former Renaissance X, one of the series of small ships built in the early 1990s. “We are trying to get a sense of whether the ship is right for our operation. We have looked at all the others that are out and about and this one had the technical work done in order to be able to travel in remote areas.” To build a new 100-passenger ship would cost a
minimum of US$70 million according to Ms Bratton, but she has met with a couple of shipyards including Cassens where Orion was built. “The cost of steel has gone so high. With the slow economy you would think the shipyards would be looking for work
OEC’s Sarina Bratton: “MGO costs us thousands more to burn than HFO”
but the cost of steel over so few beds is prohibitive. The economics don’t stack up for a 100-bed ship so my view is that newbuildings will be about 200 passengers to get the economies in place, to get a per berth cost to make it viable. The numbers just don’t stack up for 100 berths,” she says.
The OEC co-owner does not see OEC remaining as a two-ship operation. She said, “It takes two years to bring a ship to market so I am always looking that far out, looking at what is available, what we might get from other operators.”
Meanwhile fuel efficiency is very much part of the company’s itinerary planning. “We try and make sure our planning also helps to reduce the amount of fuel we burn. We work with captains etc on what speeds, how long in port. With the first ship we have one engine and a backup generator. We are analysing the utilisation of fuel and lubes by the machinery we are using. The company which operated Orion II prior to us had done so in a less analytical way and would go with, for example, 80 per cent of capacity. It is about getting to know the ship and its capabilities.” PST
OEC’s vessels are fitted with the latest navigation equipment to cope with remote areas 36 I Passenger Ship Technology I Spring 2012
www.passengership.info
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