[OT] Refloating the Costa Concordia

[Vortex11]

Not exactly DIY, but I found a fascinating explanation of the the plan to refloat a 100,000 ton ship.

megadollars cost.

[polygonum]

Wow! "The Parbuckling" - that's a term and a half. :-)

Who is going to be the first to make their own model for their bath?

[Vortex11]

Large numbers of angle grinders must be needed for a job like this ;-)

[GB]

$400m? Why not leave it there?

[Bill]

Someone would pinch it.

[brass monkey]

I'd do it for half that, possibly ;)

[Nightjar]

It is cheaper than building a replacement. The ship cost $570 million in

2004.

Colin Bignell

[Ericp]

Like the Herald of Free Enterprise they may find passengers are unlikely to travel on a floating graveyard, and it will have to be scrapped.

[harry]

I expect they'll change the name/appearance & sell to third world country.

[Nightjar]

There was not a lot of alternative uses for the Herald of Free Enterprise. Cruise ships are in demand around the world. They routinely change their names when they change hands and most people don't know the history of the ship after that.

Colin Bignell

[GB]

I really don't know how much of the cost of a ship like that is the fitting out, but it's safe to assume that the fittings are all ruined. Likewise the electrics, plumbing, and mechanical stuff. At £200 a tonne, it's probably worth £20m as scrap steel. Is it really worth trying to refurbish a hull that's lain half-submerged in salt water all this time? Besides that, to put new engines in, it may be necessary to dismantle the ship anyway.

Just my 2p-worth.

[Nightjar]

Isn't a cruise ship's hull normally partly submerged in salt water?

Obviously, somebody thinks it worth while. If they simply wanted to get the ship out of the way, it would be cut up for scrap on site.

Colin Bignell

[Tim Streater]

I thought They *were* going to build a replacement, from what I read, the ship is going to be broken up.

[GB]

It is, but with protective coatings on the outside.

My thought was that this is a political, not a commercial, decision. Ministers might think it poor for tourism to have a ship cut up for scrap on the beach - little realising that the whole of uk.d-i-y and uk.railways would go over to watch the process. :)

[Lee]

That and something to do with pollution, it may be difficult to dismantle in situ without causing problems which, one assumes ;) can be better managed elsewhere...

[damduck-egg]

A ships hull is a relatively simple structure to maintain and protect. from the outside where it easily accessible. What often kills ships is corrosion from the inside where things once built can never be as easily accessed again ,minor leaks from things like dishwashers,sewage pipes and toilets ,moisture from mopping down floors in the service areas and food storage rooms getting under hard non slip surfaces and loads of other places it penetrates and then corrosion of the supporting metal work starts. After around 30 year life it is time to scrap . The Concordia having been submerged for a long time in salt water will have that process accelerated like speeding bacterial growth on a petri dish in a labaratory incubator. And even if you removed every item down to the smallest light switch you are still left with the 1000's of tapped mounting holes and welds which you have had to cut off where things were attached where corrosion will have started.

Not an easy site to dismantle it on without the risk of it sliding off the ledge on which it rests and becoming harder to shift . And it will be easier to tow a floating lump of scrap to China/Pakistan than to load bits into lots of other ships ,which you don't want coming in too close anyway.

G.Harman

[djc]

It will be scrapped. If the parbuckling operation has to be done carefully in order not to break the wreck up, it's not going to be strong enough to be repaired.

[djc]

Can't do that. There 'the environment', also its perched on a steep slope, start breaking it up and bits will fall off

[Nightjar]

I had forgotten it is in a marine conservation area, although the area has also taken a serious hit to tourism in the past year.

Colin Bignell

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

It's being scrapped.