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[DickyD]

P&O Cruises is repairing a crack discovered on a deck of the Southampton based luxury cruise liner Ventura.

The state-of the-art ship, which carries more than 3,000 passengers, arrived in Southampton this morning.

Passengers reported the crack to be at least two inches wide across one of the exterior decks.

They reported the deck cracked open during a rough crossing across the Bay of Biscay, although P&O said the cause was being investigated.

The 116,017 tonne ship, which has 1,550 cabins and fourteen public decks, entered service in April 2008.

A P&O Cruises spokeswoman said: "Repairs will be made to an aluminium deck on Ventura upon arrival in Southampton today. This has no structural strength or safety implications.

“Ventura will leave Southampton later today as planned for a two night cruise."

The vessel is due to sail at 4.30pm this afternoon.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9996556.P_O_repairs_Ventura_deck__crack_/

[Footski]

My Dad has been on that several times!! It makes you wonder..

[Colin Bishop]

My Dad has been on that several times!! It makes you wonde

Yes, how did he manage to do it without anyone noticing..... 

[Bryan Young]

Just goes to show how much ships "work" in a seaway.
"Nothing to worry about"? I'd suggest that that "crack" (more a fissure than a crack) warrants a full scale MOT. BY.

[deadwood]

Passengers reported the crack to be at least two inches wide across one of the exterior decks.

They reported the deck cracked open during a rough crossing across the Bay of Biscay, although P&O said the cause was being investigated.

The 116,017 tonne ship, which has 1,550 cabins and fourteen public decks, entered service in April 2008.

A P&O Cruises spokeswoman said: "Repairs will be made to an aluminium deck on Ventura upon arrival in Southampton today. This has no structural strength or safety implications.

Hm, cracks due to too high bending or torsional stresses in an upper aluminium deck of an only four year old construction?
That, quite to the contrary, seems to me to have some structural strength implications.
 

[pugwash]

With the size of ships nowadays its not surprising there are occasional cracks  - even in warships it happens and they are supposed to be built to
higher specifications - The type 14 frigates had a severe structural problem and several of them cracked from beam to beam opposite the funnel
and they had to creep into harbour before it got any worse.  Then there was the ill-fated Derbyshire and her sister the Kowloon Bridge - they
all had a weakness,  6 ships built by Swan Hunters at the Haverton Hill yard. Nothing wrong with the way they were built, just  badly designed
and with a weakness around  frame 65 which if conditions were worse than normal could end up with them breaking their backs.
Its only a big deal because the media has got hold of it and nowadays they always make a mountain out of a molehill if it will sell newspapers.
This crack didn't effect the integrity of the hull and was apparently confined to metal on the ships interior.
Geoff

[grendel]

my dad told me of a refit done to one car ferry, a 'designer' was called in and overruled all of the marine experts, and fitted new carpets throughout and glass partitions all against the advice of the experts - the carpet was a high grade hotel carpet, unfortunately when the ship was inspected the carpet wasnt up to marine grade usage so failed the inspection and had to be ripped out and totally replaced with the correct product (at a cost of several million) and at the sea trials the flexture of the boat shattered several of the new glass partitions, so also had to be ripped out and replaced with the correct materials so the savings made by using a company in house (hotel) designer were all negated because he ignored the advice from the experts and fitted the boat out as he would have fitted out a hotel.
Grendel

[derekwarner]

Gents..... a few points to consider

1. adding an external reinforcing weld plate over a failed or stressed shell or deck point will only transfer the stress to the newer boundaries created by the reinforcment member
2. the use of lower weight materials is both a cost saving requirement for both fuel top weight stability
3. lower weight materials do not necessarily react well with fire.........HMS Shiefield ?????? in the Falklands?
4. even if I could afford the $ for a sea voyage ........the P&O Ventura would not be on my list........ ......Derek

[deadwood]

4. even if I could afford the $ for a sea voyage ........the P&O Ventura would not be on my list........ ......Derek

I am too miles away from being able to afford a cruise on her.
But in the first place I wouldn't fancy her for aesthetic reasons because I'm not quite into floating pressing irons.

[malcolmfrary]

A bit more here -  http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=5037
Just leaves you wondering where the stress has moved to if the crack did not seal itself when the ship stopped being pounded and flexed.  I mean, 2" (3" in some reports) is a lot of extra length to account for unless something is very badly bent somewhere near.  And if it was stress built in during construction, does it now draw that little bit more water fore and aft now?

[dodes]

I always had the impression that only MoD(n) vessels cracked up at sea!!!

[Bryan Young]

With the size of ships nowadays its not surprising there are occasional cracks  - even in warships it happens and they are supposed to be built to
higher specifications - The type 14 frigates had a severe structural problem and several of them cracked from beam to beam opposite the funnel
and they had to creep into harbour before it got any worse.  Then there was the ill-fated Derbyshire and her sister the Kowloon Bridge - they
all had a weakness,  6 ships built by Swan Hunters at the Haverton Hill yard. Nothing wrong with the way they were built, just  badly designed
and with a weakness around  frame 65 which if conditions were worse than normal could end up with them breaking their backs.
Its only a big deal because the media has got hold of it and nowadays they always make a mountain out of a molehill if it will sell newspapers.
This crack didn't effect the integrity of the hull and was apparently confined to metal on the ships interior.
Geoff

I'm very surprised that you can compare "Derbyshire" etc. to this. Nor does a reference to "conditions worse than normal" do you any favours. Compounding it with stating that the "press" blows things up out of proportion is just plain silly.
Something caused this fissure. And as sure as God made little eggs, there's a structural problem behind it. Bryan.

[NFMike]

Since it seems to be just one deck, very high in the (apparently aluminium) superstructure I very much doubt the integrity of the (presumably steel) hull about half a mile below is going to be affected. Superstructure is a descriptive word, bit like superfluous :)

Given aluminium's high coefficient of expansion I'd not be surprised if this deck was made up during a hot spell with the sun beating down on it, which would leave it 'short' later on. It's a structural problem, but probably a localised one. Plenty of airliners flying around with cracks in them - seems to be quite common in ally, you just have to keep an eye on it :)

[Colin Bishop]

Most cruise ships are built indoors these days so I doubt if weather conditions during construction would have caused the problem. Perhaps more likely is that during the earlier bad weather, the steel hull flexed and the stresses were transmitted through the structure and something gave way.

All steel ships were fitted with superstructure expansion joints to take up hull flexing, including the Titanic. Modern ships must also have some means of accommodating stress movement but perhaps somebody miscalculated on this occasion.

Colin

[dodes]

It looks to me as if a weld on a dummy deck has given way, but the ships structure underneath it looks sound. As a class one boat, if it was a serious structure failure, I expect the port state authorities to become heavily involved.

[Footski]

Well she must be okay as she is currently in the North Atlantic on her way to Lisbon....

[pugwash]

As of two minutes ago she was approaching that large bridge over Lisbon Harbour at 9.7 knots
so all would appear to be in order
 
Geofff

[Footski]

That would be the 25th July bridge.....

[pugwash]

Thats the one Barry - just forgot its name - been under it once when taking a yacht into doca de belem in Lisbon to be
repaired after a Biscay  gale - discovered Lisbon is a lovely city with a fantastic maritime musuem.

Geoff

[deadwood]

That would be the 25th July bridge.....

Almost.
It's rather the 25th April, celebrated as the "Freedom Day" in Portugal each year to commemorate the civil uproar and finally the toppling of the Salazar dictatorship, which started on 25 April in 1974 with a military coup.
It is also referred to as the "Carnation Revolution" because instead of shots fired carnation flowers were put into the muzzles of rifles.
Accordingly the bridge today is known as Ponte 25 de Abril, but its construction was initiated under the Salazar Regime, why the bridge formerly was named "Ponte Salazar".

[Footski]

I was only 3 months out!!!!

[justboatonic]

Almost.
It's rather the 25th April, celebrated as the "Freedom Day" in Portugal each year to commemorate the civil uproar and finally the toppling of the Salazar dictatorship, which started on 25 April in 1974 with a military coup.
It is also referred to as the "Carnation Revolution" because instead of shots fired carnation flowers were put into the muzzles of rifles.
Accordingly the bridge today is known as Ponte 25 de Abril, but its construction was initiated under the Salazar Regime, why the bridge formerly was named "Ponte Salazar".

Sure it wasnt the skimmed milk of the same name poured down the rifle barrels?    (I love carnation with me mixed fruit dessert!)