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The shipbuilding industry was
experiencing a wave of orders for cruise
ships. Deltamarin’s recent work included a
helicopter carrier for the Thai Navy and the
cruise ship project at Litton Ingalls.
The year 2000 also marked the opening
of Deltamarin’s stateside office in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. The launch was made
public at Miami’s Seatrade event.
The purpose of the US office was to work
on refurbishments, conversions, safety
assessments and passenger evacuation
simulation, all of which would take advantage
of Deltamarin’s new virtual reality software.
The new technology was designed to cover
changes throughout the vessel’s life. “There is
considerable room for us in the modernisation
markets, because nobody offers the same type
of comprehensive services that we do in the
United States in this area,” said Kanerva in an
interview with Turun Sanomat at the time.
To strengthen its activities in the growing
conversion market, Deltamarin also
started cooperation with the new Finnish
construction and modernisation company
ALMACO. By joining forces, Deltamarin and
ALMACO were able to offer comprehensive
packages of cabin and passenger area
upgrades and conversion. These services
included inspection, 3D computer modelling,
planning, design, coordination and installation
work.
Together with ALMACO, Deltamarin
carried out conversions for RCCL, which
wanted to refurbish its fleet starting with the
passenger cabins of Monarch of the Seas
cruise ship. The trio had previously worked
together on several smaller refurbishment
projects.
This type of conversion work turned out
to be particularly important for Deltamarin
in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In
Europe, ferry owners had carried out much
conversion work, mainly due to a stability
upgrade after the Estonia disaster but also
other types of upgrades for better fuel
performance. Color Line of Norway became
one of the company’s key customers at that
time. Still, conversions alone weren’t enough
to carry the company through the post-9/11
recession.
Deltamarin has carried
out upgrade designs for
better fuel performance
for several shipowners.