Mein Schiff 2 floats, 1 June 2018

The new Mein Schiff 2 was floated out on Friday at the Meyer Turku shipyard, and I was there as a reporter. My plan was to make a blog entry about it earlier, but Friday turned out to be a twenty-hour day (I got up at six am and went to bed at 2 am)

Mein Schiff 2

IMO 9783564
Built 2019, Meyer Turku, Finland
Tonnage 111 500 GT
Length 315,70 m
Width 35,80 m
Draugth 8,05 m
2 894 passengers (lower berths)
3 132 passengers (all berths)
Diesels, combined 28 000 kW
2 propellers
3 bow thrusters
Speed 21 knots

Traditions are important in shipbuilding, and the float-out ceremonies at the Turku shipyard have their own. I thought that, instead of simply showing you images of the Mein Schiff 2 at the shipyard, I would briefly run you through the ceremony.

Mein Schiff 2 and the awaiting crowd.

When I have attended float-outs in the past, we have been given a chance to go to the bottom of the building dock before the float-out (see, for instance, my reportage on the float-out of the Mein Schiff 5 at MaritimeMatters) but, alas, that didn't happen this time; instead, we proceeded directly to the caisson.

The ship still high and dry. In the background on the left you can see blocks of the upcoming Costa Smeralda, which will start assembly now that the MS2 is out of the way

The tradition part here is that beginning of the float-out is more than just opening the valves to let the drydock flood. Two teams, formed from local leadership of the various companies participating are formed, and they will compete on which one manages to open their valve first. The go-signal is given by the cannon group of the local arms historical society Arma Aboa using their replica of an 18th century cannon, and with uniforms to match.

Preparing to fire.

It seems I'm never quite prepared for the sheer noise of the shot, resulting in pictures like this every time.

Frantic opening of the valves commances as the ship is briefly enveloped in smoke.

And the dock starts slowly filling up.

And that's it, actually. In these days, most companies hold a proper naming ceremony only after they have taken delivery of the ship, so no champgne bottles are ivolved (this is not as novel as some commentators make it out to be, there has been a lot of variance from one company to another in the past) - and, of course, a building dock makes the whole process a lot less impressive than a traditional slipway. But with Arma Aboa's connon, the Turku yard have certainly managed to make their float-out ceremonies more interesting.

Kships, as per the usual, will return.