from them, as those are cruise ships and we brand ourselves as megayachts. It is very important to our brand to separate ourselves,” she explained. SeaDream has two yachts, SeaDream I and SeaDream II. The operator is keen to build new vessels and grow the brand and its entrepreneurial Norwegian owner, Atle Brynestad, is currently in talks with shipyards. The company has some clear ideas about the issues that will be important when it does place an order. However, Ms Conover says that SeaDream is still probably about three to five years away from signing a contract for the new vessels.
She explained that when she was involved with Seabourn
and Cunard both companies very quickly more than doubled their fleet. However “this places a lot of strain on a brand,” she warned and therefore, while she said that she would like SeaDream to add two more newly-built vessels to the fleet, this would be over a more leisurely period of time. Nonetheless, while there are no clear-cut decisions about the exact features of the new yachts, Ms Conover has firm ideas about the kind of vessel she would like to add to the fleet. “They will definitely be technologically innovative. Newbuild ships today need to have state-of-the-art technology when it comes to fuel consumption and to ensure ships are as green as possible. The way you can drive economies is to use technologies. There is no question that we want them to be as energy-efficient as possible,” Ms Conover said. She added that the new low-sulphur rules coming into
force in 2015 would have an impact on the design of its new ships as SeaDream covers Emission Control Areas areas in the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. The company has not decided how to meet the regulations yet but will be considering them in due course.
She said the new vessels would probably remain smaller
in size. Indeed, she explained that having small cruise ships reflected the company’s strategy of offering a very personalised service. As part of this strategy, SeaDream matches 112 guests to 95 members of crew. The two vessels that SeaDream operates were built in 1984
and were originally Cunard’s Sea-Goddess class ships. They were moved to the Seabourn brand and became Seabourn Goddess 1 and Seabourn Goddess 2 in 1998 after the Seabourn and Cunard brands combined. They were acquired by Seabourn’s original founder, Atle Brynestad in 2001 when he launched SeaDream. The vessels were refurbished in the German shipyard of
Lloyd Werft where an upper deck area was added to each yacht, along with a redesigned pool deck space. “A massive amount of outdoors space was added,” Ms Conover confirmed. “We really focus on outdoor, which is part of the yachting experience. It is about outdoor dining and water sports.” While the vessels are nearly 30 years old, Ms Conover said that they are in very good condition, with maintenance schedules including drydocking twice every five years. Despite being older, there are no plans to replace them. Rather, she said: “They are very popular and we hope to keep them for many years to come.”
As with the new vessel strategy, the company is very happy
with the small size of its current vessels (each 4,253gt ship is 105m long with a 14.3m beam). There are challenges: as they are small, the holding tank capacity has to be taken into account and a lifeboat doubles as a tender vessel. The company is a member of Cruise Lines International Association and has rolled out the cruise industry’s Operational Safety Review’s 10 policies, launched last year after the Costa Concordia accident. Speaking about policy challenges, Ms Conover said:
www.passengership.info
SeaDream’s vessels underwent an extensive refit in 2001, including the addition of an upper deck area
“Sometimes they are easier on a small ship, sometimes not and sometimes they don’t apply. Some of them can be aimed a larger ships and we have to see how they apply to our operation.” But challenges aside, the vessels’ shallow draught means that they can get into small ports of call and also gives the captain flexibility on the route. “We have a retractable watersports marina that we can put down in 15 minutes and we tend to use it every day. We are very flexible in approach: if a captain pulls along a nice bay, we can unexpectedly put the marina down, and say: ‘let’s stop here’.” As well as growing the fleet, Ms Connover has focused on
growing the brand’s market reach and has enlarged the sales office in the UK, in order to boost its presence there. SeaDream has also increased its revenue from Australia and Brazil. “The growth in Australia’s cruise market is one of the strongest and we have risen with that. There is more focus on cruising in Brazil – certain high end Brazilian consumers have found our brand attractive,” Ms Conover explained. SeaDream launched new itineraries from late 2013 into 2014 for northern Australia and Asia. “We have very loyal guests and having traditionally operated in the Caribbean, [but] we wanted to provide new itineraries to attract both our past guests as well as appeal to new guests,” Ms Conover said. The northern Australian voyages cover Bali, Cairnes, and Papua New Guinea. In total there are 18 voyages in Asia including numerous ports in countries including Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar (Burma), East Timor, northern Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong. Maiden voyages in Costa Rica will sail in November and December this year. With dreams of new ships and the reality of new itineraries,
Ms Conover has long-term plans for SeaDream. Her short- term goal is more modest. Asked what she would like to have achieved by end of her first year as CEO, she underlined the basics: “I’d like to have really increased the awareness of SeaDream, so people understand what the brand is about.” PST
Pamela Conover: snapshot CV
Ms Conover started at Carnival Corp and held a variety of roles. She moved to Cunard Line in 1998 as chief operating officer and became president in 2001. In 2004 she became vice president of shared services at Carnival Corp, leaving in 2006 to become president and CEO of Seabourn, before taking up her current position in January 2013 at SeaDream.
Passenger Ship Technology I 2nd Quarter 2013 I 35
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