The cruise industry is continuously addressing new markets, both geographically and in terms of new categories of passengers. This calls for new customer concepts and in addition to the ever more important environmental and safety issues, it has put totally new demands also on ship design and ship building.

A good example of the new era in the cruise industry is the biggest cruise ships to day, Freedom of the Seas launched in 2006 and and its sister ship Liberty of the Seas launched in 2007.

Both ships are built by Aker Yards in Turku, Finland, for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) and they can accommodate over 3 600 passengers. In addition to all the usual services on a modern cruise liner they offer also, for example, rock-climbing and ice-skating. They are also outfitted with a surfing simulator, the world's largest fitness centre at sea - and a full-size boxing ring!

“The passengers simply crave for new adventures aboard the ships that offer a wealth of excitement. For RCCL it is essential that the ships in every aspect apply to all the newest environmental and safety standards, and even beyond that”, says Henrik Bachér, Quality Manager, Newbuilding, RCCL.

One of the innovations aboard RCCL's ships is Hi-fog, a world-leading water mist fire protection system by the Finnish company Marioff Corporation. The system suffocates a fire using ten times less water than a conventional sprinkler system, and at the same time it also effectively cools down the air.

When the system was introduced in the early 90s, the ship owners immediately realised its advantages. Now, almost two decades later, Marioff was one of the 12 Finnish companies that successfully took part in Sea Trade Cruise Shipping in March 2007 in Miami, the biggest international annual convention serving the cruise industry.

Among the other Finnish exhibitors were for example Wärtsilä, supplier of environmentally sound propulsion solutions and related services, Halton, an innovative developer of maritime ventilation solutions and Onboard-Napa that has a long experience in creating software that very accurately calculates the ships stability.

“The Finnish shipyards have built up an integrated network of subcontractors, which in my opinion is one of the main reasons that Finland today is a leading supplier of state-of-the-art cruise ships”, says Henrik Bachér. /ins


Picture 1: Liberty of the Seas from Royal Caribean Cruise Lines is one of the biggest cruise ships today, where the latest environmental and safety standards such as fire protection and ships stability are applied.
© Aker Yards ASA

Picture 2: Marioff was one of the 12 Finnish companies that successfully took part in Sea Trade Cruise Shipping Convention in March 2007 in Miami
© Messua Oy

Seatrade Cruise Shipping press contacts:

Salla Paloneva
Sales Manager
Messua Oy

Vesijärvenkatu 74 B
FI-15140 Lahti

Mobile: +358-50-401 7455
Direct: +358-3-357 7556

Fax: +358-3-734 6606
Email: salla.paloneva@messua.fi

Seatrade Cruise Shipping 2007, Miami
Finnish Pavillion

Deltamarin Ltd
www.deltamarin.com
Services for Marine and Offshore Industrie

Halton Oy, Halton Marine
www.haltonmarine.com
Manufacturer of HVAC equipment on board ships

Marioff Corporation Oy
www.hi-fog.com
Water mist fire protection technology

Onboard-Napa Ltd
www.napa.fi
Software systems for ship design and operation

Ensto Oy
www.ensto.com
Provider of electrical systems and solutions

SeaKing Ltd
www.seaking.fi
Functional catering systems

Emerson Process Management Marine Solutions
www.EmersonProcess.com/Marine
Marine tank management

Wärtsilä Corporation
www.wartsila.com
Complete propulsion solutions and related life-cycle services

Jukova Oy
www.jukova.fi
Boat fittings in aluminium

Press release images