With the industry on a long pause, the vessels under the management of CMI are laid up in strategic locations, said Jim Barreiro de León, president and CEO.
“Our vessels are laid up at the moment in Las Palmas and Tenerife. We have another ship in northern France, and two in the United States,” he said, in the 2021 Drydock Report by Cruise Industry News.
“We are focusing on the projects that need to be completed from a compliance point of view; any class conditions, and we do a lot of work with the crew that we have onboard and make sure that the vessels are maintained in class and ready to be deployed in a moment’s notice.”
De León added that he hopes that the two drydock projects CMI had scheduled in 2020 will be completed in 2021.
“The Ocean Diamond (pictured above) will be heading out for refurbishment of the main lounge … But the ship has been upgraded over the last two to three years. And then we have the Ocean Atlantic that is due for regular mandatory drydock,” he said. “Because of the COVID situation, we’re going to move those two to 2021.”
Planning
De León said that CMI usually plans projects three to five years ahead.
“We have our mandatory drydocks. These are regulated by the drydocking cycles, as specified by the classification society. Because we are a ship management company. We work in a very close cooperation with the clients. They then also express their wishes as to what they would like to see happening to their vessel,” he explained.
“Whether it’s an upgrade on the hotel side or whether it’s changing engine compliance levels, because of changes in itinerary that require them to modify their engines. And based on that, we set out the parameters of the project and discuss the final decisions, after which we go out for quotations and contact the manufacturers and people that are related to the specific project itself. And then we plan things out.”
Asked whether he thinks the drydock projects will change in scope post-pandemic, De León said that it’s unlikely.
“I think they will remain as they are. In fact, this experience (in 2020) is a great opportunity to really think about the things we need to do and what we want to do with our vessels. And as soon as the mark goes back, we’re ready to execute some of the ideas that we’ve had.”
