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but why do they want to do this? Its not like they can move that cruise ship anywhere it couldn't have gone on its own.

Arbalest 7y ago
Time is money. A cruise ship not carrying passengers is not making money. Presumably it was more cost effective to use this than to travel to a dry dock wherever that is. The article this was switched over from did say it was fairly far from a dry dock capable of taking it in.
- fennecfoxen 7y ago
  > Time is money. A cruise ship not carrying passengers is not making money. Time is especially money because money isn't free. When you are a company, you are generally expected to pay for your money: either interest on your loan, or profits to your shareholders (directly through dividends or indirectly through the higher stock price that comes from being a more valuable business). This cruise ship probably has a mortgage.
ceejayoz 7y ago
> Its not like they can move that cruise ship anywhere it couldn't have gone on its own. It's absolutely like that, in scenarios where the cruise ship is broken.
- gambiting 7y ago
  Sure, but I was also asking myself what sort of problem does this solve that towing the boat doesn't - it doesn't get the boat quicker to a dry dock than towing would for example, nor does it allow it to sail to places that it couldn't otherwise. The answer is in the details - the nearest dry dock where it could moor for repairs is unavailable due to recent damage, so this entire platform serves as a kind of mobile dry dock while the repairs are carried out.
  - pwg 7y ago
    > it doesn't get the boat quicker to a dry dock than towing would for example, But in this case, it did. The ship was located in a part of the world where the available dry dock was currently unable to take it in, so this lift ship is acting as a temporary dry dock to allow the repairs to happen to the ship. So it did "get the boat quicker to a dry dock" because the heavy lift ship is also serving as a "dry dock" while the repairs happen to the cruise liner.
cardiffspaceman 7y ago
I am not an expert but a crane toppled in a dry dock that Royal Caribbean was using, and it took the dry dock out of action[1]. This appears to have screwed up scheduling all over the place. I had a deposit on a cruise in April 2021 that was canceled because of the butterfly effect from this. Possibly due to some sort of perceptual Bader-Meinhof effect, it seems to me that ABB Azipods are often showing up in complaints by passengers of missed ports and delays[2]. Carnival Vista needed a dry dock and was a bit impaired by its Azipod problems in reaching it and maneuvering, apparently. As stated by others, the lift ship is acting as a dry dock rather than taking the Vista to the dry dock. [1] https://gcaptain.com/oasis-of-the-seas-dry-dock-accident/ https://gcaptain.com/oasis-of-the-seas-dry-dock-accident/ [2] https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Insights/Vista-just-latest-example-of-azipod-blues https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Insights/Vista-ju...
a2tech 7y ago
In this case the ships propulsion systems were semi-broken (one of the azipods wasn't working). The dry dock where it was didn't have the capabilities they needed to work on it and those cruise ships have aggressive schedules so every day its sitting they're losing money. They could have towed it somewhere but thats time there and back.

Time is money. A cruise ship not carrying passengers is not making money. Presumably it was more cost effective to use this than to travel to a dry dock wherever that is. The article this was switched over from did say it was fairly far from a dry dock capable of taking it in.

fennecfoxen 7y ago
> Time is money. A cruise ship not carrying passengers is not making money. Time is especially money because money isn't free. When you are a company, you are generally expected to pay for your money: either interest on your loan, or profits to your shareholders (directly through dividends or indirectly through the higher stock price that comes from being a more valuable business). This cruise ship probably has a mortgage.

ceejayoz 7y ago

> Its not like they can move that cruise ship anywhere it couldn't have gone on its own. It's absolutely like that, in scenarios where the cruise ship is broken.

gambiting 7y ago
Sure, but I was also asking myself what sort of problem does this solve that towing the boat doesn't - it doesn't get the boat quicker to a dry dock than towing would for example, nor does it allow it to sail to places that it couldn't otherwise. The answer is in the details - the nearest dry dock where it could moor for repairs is unavailable due to recent damage, so this entire platform serves as a kind of mobile dry dock while the repairs are carried out.
- pwg 7y ago
  > it doesn't get the boat quicker to a dry dock than towing would for example, But in this case, it did. The ship was located in a part of the world where the available dry dock was currently unable to take it in, so this lift ship is acting as a temporary dry dock to allow the repairs to happen to the ship. So it did "get the boat quicker to a dry dock" because the heavy lift ship is also serving as a "dry dock" while the repairs happen to the cruise liner.

cardiffspaceman 7y ago

I am not an expert but a crane toppled in a dry dock that Royal Caribbean was using, and it took the dry dock out of action[1]. This appears to have screwed up scheduling all over the place. I had a deposit on a cruise in April 2021 that was canceled because of the butterfly effect from this. Possibly due to some sort of perceptual Bader-Meinhof effect, it seems to me that ABB Azipods are often showing up in complaints by passengers of missed ports and delays[2]. Carnival Vista needed a dry dock and was a bit impaired by its Azipod problems in reaching it and maneuvering, apparently. As stated by others, the lift ship is acting as a dry dock rather than taking the Vista to the dry dock. [1] https://gcaptain.com/oasis-of-the-seas-dry-dock-accident/ https://gcaptain.com/oasis-of-the-seas-dry-dock-accident/ [2] https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Insights/Vista-just-latest-example-of-azipod-blues https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Insights/Vista-ju...

a2tech 7y ago

In this case the ships propulsion systems were semi-broken (one of the azipods wasn't working). The dry dock where it was didn't have the capabilities they needed to work on it and those cruise ships have aggressive schedules so every day its sitting they're losing money. They could have towed it somewhere but thats time there and back.