Fincantieri honed in on three main areas to make Silversea Cruises’ new flagship Silver Muse more energy efficient than sister ship Silver Spirit. Fincantieri told Rebecca Moore how it achieved this and about some of its main focuses on building the ultra-luxury cruise ship
Silversea Cruises’ new flagship Silver Muse has boosted energy efficiency in three areas compared to predecessor Silver Spirit according to its builder Fincantieri: within lighting, the HVAC system and hull coating.
Moreover, in contrast to Silver Spirit, which was also built by Fincantieri and delivered in 2009, new legislation means that it has incorporated the Safe Return to Port concept and has space for scrubbers should the owner wish to install them at a later date.
Silver Muse is a 298-passenger luxury cabins (248 veranda suites, 46 grand suites and four owner’s suites) that will serve as a flagship for the luxury line. At 40,700 tons, the ship will be the largest in the Silversea fleet, surpassing the size of Silver Spirit, which is currently the largest.
Like Silver Spirit, Silver Muse is an ultra-luxury cruise ship. Fincantieri project manager of the cruise ship, Andrea Qualizza told Passenger Ship Technology: “It is a vessel with the same behaviour, condition and comfort as Silver Spirit but with the latest energy saving technology and the latest Safe Return to Port requirement. The owner is very happy with Silver Spirit, but asked Fincantieri to install on Silver Muse the latest fuel saving technologies. We also updated the lay-out of all the 298 passenger cabin maintaining the high standard of the material of the previous one installed on Silver Spirit.”
The use of LED lighting was one of the three of ways in which energy efficiency has been boosted in Silver Muse compared to Silver Spirit. The second area was the HVAC system. Frequency converters were installed within the air conditioning system, meaning the air conditioning matches the real time needs of the installed power in accommodation areas. “It is using the power in the best way,” Mr Qualizza noted.
Fincantieri designed the air conditioning system itself, as part of a wider strategy by the Italian shipyard to design as many aspects within the ships that it builds, in-house.
As Mr Qualizza explained: “We have a new business model, which is to design and supply “in-house” and avoid turnkey applications from sub-contractors.”
He said that there are three main reasons behind this strategy: “It saves money - keeping cost under control, by designing internally we have the possibility to increase our know-how within different areas and make it better than external sub-contractors, and it gives us the possibility to promote innovations.”
The third way in which energy efficiency has been ramped up is through the use of a hull silicon coating. Hempel paint was selected. Mr Qualizza said: “The silicon painting provides a really good performance, increasing the efficiency of the hull.
“While this solution is already well known in our business, it is the first time that we include the silicon paint process before the ship delivery.”
He highlighted the challenges of applying a silicon coating: “The vessel needs to be in a good environmental condition, with no rain and temperature higher than 10 degrees Celsius. We have been really lucky as two weeks ago, despite the fact that we are in winter, we had good weather and so were able to apply this painting.”
A sign of the paint’s success is that the vessel’s speed has been able to increase of about 0.3 knots compared to Silver Spirit, at the same propulsion power.
Focusing on comfort and decreasing noise and vibration was very important, especially as the vessel is in the ultra-luxury sector. Silver Muse meets the RINA class noise and vibration notation. “Both the RINA inspector and owner were very happy about how noise and vibration has been reduced in the cabins and public areas,” said Mr Qualizza.
One important feature that Silver Muse shares with Silver Spirit is the extensive use of marble in the cabin bathrooms and public areas. Mr Qualizza said: “Because of the weight of marble, we proposed to the owner to use the alternative material (Silestone) that are visibly similar to marble but lighter. To maintain the reference vessel quality standard, the proposal has been rejected confirming the extensive use of marble, even though it is heavier.”
Aluminium was used in structure of the deck of the forward and aft parts of the vessel. “This is a standard solution we use on our vessel when we have to contain the weight,” said Mr Qualizza, pointing out the benefits of its lighter weight. In terms of technical considerations, the shipyard decided to use aluminium “to provide the vessel with the requested high standard of stability and behaviour.” Pointing out the benefits of aluminium lighter weight, Mr Qualizza said: “This is a technical solution implemented to recover weight and improve vessel stability, notwithstanding the great effort spent to maintain at the same time the proper fire and structural integrity according to the more complex aluminium constructive standards.”
The cruise ship will run on heavy fuel oil and diesel oil. While scrubbers have not been installed, the ship has been designed so that they can be fitted at a later stage. The casing and engine room arrangements have been in fact studied to allow future installation of the scrubbers in place of the existing DDGG silencers and of all relevant switchboard and auxiliaries. In terms of its technical configuration, two x 8.500 kW, 152rpm Wartsila diesel electric engines were used. Two x 1.000 kW 4-blades bow thrusters were deployed, and one x 1.500 kW 4-blades stern thruster was deployed. Mr Qualizza described the propulsion as “traditional diesel-electric” with a traditional shaft line.
Further to the above mentioned 298 suites with relevant 1880 square meters of balcony, the vessel has about 7000 square meters of luxury internal passenger public areas and 3900 square meters of passengers outdoor areas with teak or resin deck covering and various hotel facilities such as bars, restaurants pool and whirlpool.
Principal particulars
Length 212.8m
Moulded breadth 27m
Draft 6.5m
Gross tonnage 40,700
Service speed 19.8 knots
Main equipment suppliers
Description | Vendor |
AUTOMATION SYSTEM - NAPA | NAPA |
BALLAST WATER TREATMENT | NAPA |
BATTERY CHARGER PANELS | NAPA |
CABINS & TOILETS | DE WAVE |
CABINS ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION | GEM |
E/M PACKAGE | SAM ELECTRONICS |
EMERGENCY GENERATOR ENGINE | CGT - CATERPILLAR |
EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN SYSTEM | MARTEC |
ENGINE ROOMS VENTILATION SYSTEM SILENCING SYSTEM | C.T.M. |
EXHAUST GAS BOILERS | ALFA LAVAL (AALBORG ) |
EXHAUST GAS DUCTS SILENCER | BOSCO |
FIRE DETECTION SYSTEM | MARTEC |
FRESH WATER GENERATORS | WARTSILA SHERK COMO |
FUEL OIL BOOSTERS | ALFA LAVAL |
H.V.A.C. SYSTEM WATER CHILLER UNITS | CARRIER |
LIFEBOATS AND RESCUEBOATS DAVITS AND WINCHES | NAVALIMPIANTI |
LIFEBOATS, TENDER, RESCUE BOATS | HATECKE |
LIFERAFTS | VIKING |
LIFTS & ELEVATORS | KONE |
LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM | SEASTEMA |
PAINTINGS | HEMPEL |
PLATE HEAT EXCHANGERS | ALFA LAVAL |
PROPELLERS | WARTSILA |
RUDDER | VAN DER VELDEN |
SEA WATER FILTERS | STEELFORM |
SERVICE AIR COMPRESSORS (8.5BAR) | SAUER COMPRESSORS |
SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT | SCANSHIP |
VACUUM BLACK WATER COLLECTING PLANT | JETS VACUUM |
VENTILATION FANS | ILMED |
WALKIE TALKIE REPEATER NETWORK | NOVELRADIO |
WASTE DISPOSAL EQUIPMENT | SCANSHIP |
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