Norr

[Jens Heri]

Yesterday the passenger ship Norr

[Richard Paton]

She is just approaching Lerwick now, at most 10-15 minutes out.

Richard

[CedricH]

Hi,

hastn't she just returned from refit at Blomm+Voss?

Regards
Cedric

[Jens Heri]

Hi
Yes she has just returned from maintenance work.
At the time of the incident only one stabilization finn was in use. This one broke and left the ship with no stabilization   finns.

Norr

[CedricH]

Hi,

sailing with only one staiblisor is a bit awkward if you ask me.
I read once ships have difficulties to keep on course with only one in use, certainly in those hurricane winds.

N

[Richard Paton]

With regard to what Jens says about voices saying she is to big for the route in winter, i have to say i tend to agree with that thinking.

Even when she used to call at Lerwick in winter sometimes she dropped off maybe only 4-5 passengers and picked up even less! Now the lunacy of having a 36,000gt ferry running around during a northern winter, with very few people on board smacks of stupidity.

Ideally what Smiryl Line should have done is got themselves a smaller ferry for the winter, and chartered the Norrona out to the cruise market/or some other ferry company were i'm sure she would have made a return. That way she would be earning money in the off season instead of cancelling out her summer profit....

A no brainer i would say.....

Regards
Richard

[daverobert]

If they had a smaller ferry they could run that over the winter and still use the smaller ferry in addition to the Norrona over the summer as quite often the Norrona will be full over the summer

The only thing is, with a smaller ferry, over the winter might be a nightmare. The Iceland trips/adventurous schedule they have now was never possible with the old Norrona.

I wonder how long she'll be in Lerwick for?  Wish I still lived in Shetland to get a picture!

[daverobert]

The Shetland News article makes interesting reading...
http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/news_11_2007/Norrona%20is%20holed%20up%20in%20Lerwick.htm

A bit more serious than I thought it was.

[Johnny Holmen]

I've just been on a roundrip to Iceland from Bergen (the last so-called Viking cruise this year) before she went to Blohm & Voss for service.

We,ve encountered rough weather both ways, but she is a sturdy vessel designed for the routes she traffic year round.

Eventhough there might not be a full passenger load in the winter time, she keeps a schedule an offer an alternative for motorists and freight (a lot of freight wheeled on/off both in Seydisfjoeurdur and Thorshavn), and she offer a weekend get-away for the Faroese with her late Thursday departure from Thorshavn with a return to Thorshavn the following Monday morning.

[steel_rat]

I spoke to a friend of mine at sunday evening. Hes sister is working on Norr

[Gunnar Olsen]

The Norr

[CedricH]

Hi,

I read the blackout was due to an "overdrive".
This occured when one or both of the propellors came out of the water due to the rough seas.
When this happens, the engines spin very fast and the computer shuts them down automatically to prevent damage.
After a few minutes they could be restarted an the journey could be continued.

Aparently, there is no-one in the engine control room during the crossing because the computers monitor everything.
An alarm will warn them if attention is needed.
During manouvers, the engine room is manned.

Regards
Cedric

[mooringman]

there is a good way to prevent this overspeeding of the propellers:REDUCE the speed of the vessel.i had two vessel with this problems,we always reduced the speed and the propeller didn't speed over.one vessel was a coaster with 3000tdw and the other one was a freighter with 10000tdw,139m loa,there we had the problem very often in the north atlantic in winter in ballast going from uk to nfld.but with a new modern vessel like the "Norr

[JMB]

There is a picture of the mess on the car deck on the BBC website

[Johnny Holmen]

There is an article in the norwegian newspaper VG with pictures from the car-deck after the ordeal (the text is in norwegian only).

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=184316

Apparantly a substential number of the cars onboard has suffered various kind of damages. This is contradictory to the press releases coming from the owner of the ferry, Smyril Line