Pod troubles bring forward QV yard stay

Cunard said the ship’s scheduled dry-docking at the German yard in December 2015 was being brought forward because a bearing on one of the ship’s two 16.7MW ABB Azipod propulsion unit needs replacing.

Two cruises will have to be cancelled because of the early docking which German reports said was taking place between 3 January and 19 January. Cunard said the work “has no impact on the safety of the ship but it is timely for the bearing to be replaced prior to the ship’s Round World Cruise beginning 20 January”.

The owners referred to the May visit of Queen Elizabeth to the Hamburg yard, during which scrubber technology was installed. It said the latest “multi-million pound refit” of Queen Victoria would also involve the installation of a filtration system for the exhaust gas from the ship’s engines. It added that this was in line with the company’s commitment to minimising the environmental impact of its ships.

Nine new single state-rooms will also be installed during the QV’s docking and various other interior renovations would be carried out, it said.

This correspondent notes it is not the first time that Queen Victoria has booked an unscheduled dry-docking at a German shipyard because of bearing problems in her propulsion units.

The ship, which went into service in 2007, underwent “essential maintenance work” related to bearing problems in one of her ABB Azipod propulsion units at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven (LWB) in October 2012. A Cunard spokeswoman told The Motorship at the time the work involved “one of the bearings on one of the ship’s pods”. The problems forced Cunard to operate the ship at low speed.

Queen Victoria

was last at Blohm + Voss Repair in 2010 when she was dry-docked for work which also including propulsion plant overhaul. B + V also repaired a damaged

Queen Mary

pod in 2006.