Source.
Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Fall 2021.
Overseeing the building of Storylines’ Narrative, Gelen Marine is working to deliver what its Managing Director Paul Read said was a “high-quality, cost-effi cient residential newbuild.”
The residential vessel – which has the capacity of 1,250 people – will be built at Brodosplit shipyard in Croatia. Gelen Marine is overseeing its design and build, working from the start with both the shipyard and Tillberg Design of Sweden.
Read told Cruise Industry News that the initial ship design was in progress, with a full ship specification package expected later this year, and construction set to begin in 2022.
Brodosplit will thus deliver the ship’s general arrangement plans, safe return to port, hull CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and stability calculations; and the initial overall design, while Tillberg Design of Sweden is responsible for the vessel’s interiors and public spaces.
With the vessel still in the design phase, Storylines’ Sustainability Ambassador Bethany Hunter said that the company was fortunate to be able to utilize all the latest green technologies available. Storylines is working closely with Wartsila on that front, she added.
“When you consider it’s a residential ship and not a cruise ship, certain aspects are totally different,” added Read. “There aren’t 2,000 people coming on and off every week. Our operational profile is for longer stays in port, so you have to think about discharge, fuel bunkering and food, and getting water, which can be piped onboard so we don’t need to think about creating water as much.”
The company has already committed to LNG but hybrid propulsion with peak shaving and battery power, along with fuel cells, is under consideration.
“We are looking at waste heat recovery, and also the waste cold recovery from LNG, and using that to cool the HVAC,” said Read.
Onboard solar panels are also being planned.
“There are many different systems we are trying to bring together and integrate to reduce fuel consumption and increase sustainability,” Read noted. “For the hull coating, we need to look at the anti-fouling coating since we are not moving so much. It’s completely different from a traditional cruise ship.”
Helping to future proof the Narrative, the ship will be designed like a smart city with artificial intelligence (AI).
“If we’re sailing a certain way and have sun on the ship, and no one is in those (apartments), the AI can close the blinds so we don’t use so much energy,” Read explained.
Hunter said that the Narrative being a residential ship makes it easier to reduce the environmental impact.
“We can go far beyond banning plastic water bottles because our residents live here. They don’t need any single-use plastic at all … everything onboard is washable and reusable,“ she said.
“We’re also in the unique position of being a small enough company that we can implement important policies and procedures that mitigate waste from the start, whereas waste reduction can be a very slow process for larger companies and can take many years.”
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Gelen Marine