Right; time to reveal the point of this excercise!
What Clydebuilt has done here is, in fact, to create the concept outlines for a new class of Atlantic standard express liner.
No, I don't have any financing or plans in place or anything like that, I am simply a) proving that a modern high efficiency hull style won't look awful with a traditional style superstructure on top of it and b) making a few suggestions as to where such a liner could be used.
Firstly, I am aware of the many suggestions for building old style liners, though most of these do not appear to combine these two elements; some even contemplate a 100% old look, including the underwater part of the hull - in other words a replica; I think we all know why that wouldn't work in terms of fuel efficiency don't we?!
My suggestion, as above, puts the older look on a highly efficient and proven hull design.
I propose that these concepts are "True Queens"; whether Cunard or not is irrelevant - there is nothing to stop anyone else setting up a line and using the hitherto unused "Queen" names is there? And it also follows that if you want to operate a year round line voyage service, you need a minimum of two ships ( to cover refits, maintenance etc at quiet times of the year ).
Where could you, these days, find a line voyage that could be made year round?
Well, actually there is one obvious possibility:
Southampton depart Wednesday afternoon.
Lanzarote Saturday morning.
Gran Canaria Saturday afternoon.
Madiera or Azores on Sunday.
Southampton arrive Tuesday afternoon.
Of course this requires an express liner as it needs a 30 knot average in a moderate sea; hence why the concept drawing has four propellors!
Now, that weekly circuit caters for the midweek to midweek holiday people while at the same time matching the Saturday to Saturday requirements of most hotels in the Canaries. It allows the choice of doing the one week round trip as a holiday in itself, or a two week holiday with a week in the Canaries with no flying, no hassle.
A lady I work with owns a villa on Lanzarote and she thinks this is a very good idea and that it would work; think about it - if there's, say, 1800 to 2000 passengers that's really only the equivalent of 10 plane loads a week, so it only needs a small number of the Canaries market to switch. It has the possibility of winning block booking deals direct from the main holiday operators as well.
Where would the second vessel work? You could do a simliar itinerary with the Baleric ( spelling? ) islands couldn't you, with that kind of speed.
However, that's also a full year round market, so here's the beautiful bit - that justifies a third liner, which could cruise for eight months of the year on QE2 style itineraries, making use of the speed capability to go for the further away destinations within a given cruise length, and during the other four months cover the refit and maintenance work for the other two; there would always be two liners available to cover the two line voyages year round and the third doing cruises wherever and whenever for the rest of the time.
And, it so happens, that there is a nice, neat, naming coincidence as well: We have three "True Queens" here, and there are three unused Queen names with the same letter: Anne, Alexandra and Adelaide. So we could have some naming consistency as well, and refer to the liners as "A" Class Queens, which makes the marketing consistent as well; it also re-inforces to passengers that if they try one of the other routes they'll get the same quality across the board.
So, OK, it's not the traditional Atlantic run, but it is line voyages and it is a traditional appearance...
The difficult bit will be to raise the probable £2.5billion required......!!
But, still... your thoughts, please?
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Jan 18, 2018, 11:49 PM