The P & O Australian cruise ship ' Pacific Star ' has received some damaged in a storm while on a eight day cruise from Auckland.

Passengers have been given free medical treatment plus spending money vouchers for Australian $ 100 and a free cabin meal service.

It is reported that waves over 10 metres high battered the ship and there is some damage to the ships external doors and windows plus the ships bow.

The planned call at Lifou in New Caledonia has been cancelled and the ship is proceeding to Vila for an overnight stay before returning to Auckland.

Pacific Star is 35,000grt and entered service in 1982.

Before transfering to P&O Australia, in 2005, Pacific Star had previously been the Carnival cruise ship Tropicale and the Costa cruise ship Costa Tropicale

Neil ( Bob )

[ 07-13-2007: Message edited by: Neil Whitmore ( Bob ) ]

[ 07-15-2007: Message edited by: Neil Whitmore ( Bob ) ]

It is confirmed that the cruise has been cancelled.

Passengers will get a 100% refund and be flown home.

The ship will proceed to Brisbane for repairs before returning to Auckland.

A satellite dish was blown away in the storm plus it is reported there is damage to the ships bow, doors and windows.

Neil ( Bob )

[ 07-15-2007: Message edited by: Neil Whitmore ( Bob ) ]

Hundreds stranded by storm-damaged cruise ship

The Pacific Star's bow was damaged by the 10m waves. Photo / Andrew Read

Hundreds stranded by storm-damaged cruise ship
5:00AM Monday July 16, 2007
By Errol Kiong

Hundreds of New Zealanders on a "holiday from hell" have been forced to wait for flights out of Vanuatu because their storm-damaged cruise ship will not return to Auckland.

The 1200 passengers on P&O's Pacific Star are still in Vila, after the liner sailed through gale-force winds and swells of up to 10m shortly after leaving Auckland on Tuesday.

During the storm 50-knot winds, with gusts up to 70 knots, damaged the ship's bow and some of its windows and external doors, as well as satellite equipment.

P&O spokeswoman Sandy Olsen said the bow was being repaired in Vila, before the ship sailed to Brisbane, without passengers, for a thorough inspection.

"The ship can sail, but we want to inspect it thoroughly, so we are taking it to Brisbane."

She could not estimate the cost to repair the damage. "We have not even looked at that yet. At this stage we are focused on the passengers."

With commercial flights heavily booked out due to the holidays, and a local sporting event, P&O had booked charter flights from Vanuatu, Noumea and Fiji.

"The passengers will leave on charter flights over the next few days," Ms Olsen said.

Asked if passengers had complained about what had happened, she said they had been "very patient".

Passengers became so ill during last week's storm that they were given free doctors' visits and $100 vouchers.

Some are now questioning whether the ship should have set off in the first place. Auckland man Ian Trezise - whose wife Jill, stepdaughters Brooke Atkinson and Ellen Walker and sister-in-law Robin Casserly were on board - last night wanted to know who made the call to go ahead.

"Who makes the decision to cruise the boat through that bloody storm that everyone knew was coming ... when there was absolutely nowhere to go for shelter?

"You can sort of imagine the pressures that might have been brought to bear on a ship's captain to keep the cruise cruising, but look at what happened. It's a disaster.

"I've only spoken briefly to my wife and had a couple of emails, but they were a bit horrified by the weather."

One passenger said the dream trip to Vanuatu had started like the holiday from hell.

Conditions were so bad the ship had to cancel a planned stopover in Lifou, New Caledonia, instead heading straight for Vila for its scheduled Friday night stopover.

The company yesterday announced it was cancelling the rest of the cruise so that the Pacific Star could go in to drydock in Brisbane for a thorough inspection. It had been scheduled to return to Auckland on Wednesday.

MetService duty forecaster Allister Gorman said the first official warning of "storm-force winds" - winds over 50 knots - was issued on Monday at 11am.

"It'd only be a few times a year that we'd actually have to issue a warning of this type of strength for the Hauraki Gulf area."

Ms Olsen said while it might have been uncomfortable, at no time were passengers in danger. Captain Ivan Jerman had more than 35 years' experience at sea, she said.

"The safety and the comfort of passengers would always be the captain's first priority. And the captain would not have departed Auckland if he had any concern whatsoever. The weather, it would seem, took a turn for the worse in quite a short space of time on the Tuesday."

Ms Olsen said the ship had sought shelter behind Great Barrier Island initially, but because of the intensity of the storm had headed out to sea.

"In these sorts of circumstances apparently it's often safer to head to sea and you can ride the waves rather than be buffeted closer to the shore. And he slowed the ship down and he took the course of least resistance."

Auckland Regional Council harbourmaster John Lee Richards said last night he couldn't comment on whether the ship's captain made the right decision to sail, or to take shelter behind land.

He said the ship left the port about 4 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon in winds of about 20-25 knots. The port was closed about two hours later when winds reached 40 knots.

Mr Trezise hopes his wife will be home in time for her father's 80th birthday on Thursday.

"It is not something that we want to miss. We're pretty keen to get her back before then.

"They're not shipbound, they can no doubt take tours and make the most of whatever time they've got there, but I think the uncertainty of what's happening takes the edge off the enjoyment," Mr Mr Trezise said.

P&O said passengers will be given a full refund, as well as a 25 per cent credit on their next cruise.

They were also offered a complimentary phone call or internet time to contact family as a result of the cancellation.

25% is less than their price breaker discount (early booking) So for that you would assume it would be combinable giving them 55% off full brochure price. Or even better 25% off P&O UK or Princess.

Pacific Star has sailed from Vila and is due to arrive at Hamilton No 1 berth at Brisbane on the 20th July at 04.00 hrs.

Pacific Star is scheduled to leave that berth on the 20th July at 12.45 hrs and proceed to the Cairncross Dry-dock arriving at 13.45hrs

At present there is no information about how long she will be in the dry-dock at Brisbane.

Her webcam is still not working !

quote:

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Originally posted by mike sa:
[...]Hmm, Pacific Dawn would fair even less well indeed there are few modern ships that would do better.[..]

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The old liners would start a voyage full of fuel and potable water and toward the end with the tanks empty ride high and tender.

The modern ships use much less fuel and make their own water. The captain can fill ballast compartments as needed for optimum stability.

quote:

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Indeed. The Pacific Star is certainly not less seaworthy than other modern passenger ships.
EVERY modern passenger ship is designed to handle severe weather - some do a bit better some do a bit worse. Accidents can happen - and under severe circumstances some damage to the vessel is unavoidable.

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The Pacific can have some very severe weather, not like the Caribbean that can be calm flat water the whole time. Small ships are good there and you will not get sea sick.

I have sailed on a 4,170 ton ship in the Pacific (Tasman sea and NZ) and the movement caused sea sickness to allot of people including myself. Yet on the same ship up north of Darwin in the Timor Sea and Arafura Sea in the tropics where the sea was calm no one got sea sick at all. The Bay of Biscay is nothing compared to the Tasman and Bass Straight and Great Australian Bite.

The Pacific Star is not ideal in places where you get severe weather (not because it might or might not get damaged) but because of comfort.

The weather will not snap Pacific Star or any other ship in half and no ship will be damaged significantly more or less because of its size.

Passenger comfort is more important, and personally I would rather cruise on Pacific Dawn into the Pacific than Pacific Star.

When the 41,500 grt ss Oriana was cruising from Australia we had some atrocious weather in the winter time on some of the cruises but always sailed through it with no damage to the ship.

She was fitted with satalite navigation and weather reporting equipment so the Captain, Phillip Jackson, knew what was happening all the time.

We would slow down, if required, to let bad weather pass across our course and would then increase speed so as to arrive at the next port on time.

Many small cruise ships give you a very bumpy ride in rough weather.

quote:

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Originally posted by Norfolk Boy:
[...] Think of the Caledonian Star (South America) and the ex-Celebrity twins, all 3 of which had wheelhouse windows smashed.

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Which Celebrity twins? Or do you mean Olympia Voyager and Olympia Explorer? They have nothing to do with Celebrity.

quote:

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Originally posted by Ernst:
The larger the better is usually true - but also large ships can have problems -.......................................

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Do not average wave lengths of certain seas/oceans sometimes determine the best sized vessel for more stability in those specific areas of operation than others?

Pam

[ 07-19-2007: Message edited by: PamM ]

quote:

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Originally posted by desirod7:

One cruisetalker and former crew member tiold me that the 600' liners take less damage in storms than the 1000'ers since the smaller ones ride the contour of the waves rather than plow through them.

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Longer ships are usually nicer in bad weather - but one can NOT make conclusions on the forces acting on certain parts of the ship based on the length only. (e.g. the shape of the bow plays a role
(more or less flare) - and a larger, heavier ship might actually expose parts of the ship to higher forces)

Forget about this distinction that some ships "plow trough" the waves vs. "riding on the waves". It depends a lot on the the moment of inertia of the ship and the ratio of the wavelength seen by the ship (which depends e.g. on the speed) and the length of the ship - depending on that a pitch, heave etc. might be excited or not - so it is not only the ship itself but the circumstances AND how it is operated.

[ 07-19-2007: Message edited by: Ernst ]

quote:

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Originally posted by desirod7:

One cruisetalker and former crew member tiold me that the 600' liners take less damage in storms than the 1000'ers since the smaller ones ride the contour of the waves rather than plow through them.

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Thats true the story told by a former HAL captain of the Nieuw Amsterdam ('38) He told in a interview that the Cunard Queens on west bound crossings. Sailed past the Nieuw Amsterdam because they where faster. But with bad weather it often happen that the Nieuw Amsterdam sailed past because she handled the rough sea much better. In New York almost every time the ships having more damages then the Nieuw Amsterdam.

It would appear that the webcam on Pacific Star is stuck as it is still showing the same picture and time, in the dry dock at Brisbane, as it did when she arrived there.

Having been at sea I think we both know that the paint used now does not seem to last as long as it did years back.

Rust streaks soon appear on ships hulls and with the bouncing about Pacific Star got I am surprised more paint is not missing from her hull.

quote:

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Originally posted by Neil Whitmore ( Bob ):
Mike

Having been at sea I think we both know that the paint used now does not seem to last as long as it did years back.

Neil ( Bob )

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