16 August 2010

Star Princess, 13 August 2010

Star Princess

IMO 9192363
Built 2002, Fincantieri Monfalcone, Italy
Tonnage 108 977 GT
Length 289,51 m
Width 36,00 m
Draugth 8,00 m
3 102 passengers
4 Sulzer-Grandi Motori diesels, combined 41 925 kW
2 propellers
3 bow thrusters
1 stern thruster (?)
Speed 22,5 knots

Star Princess is a member of Princess Cruises' and P&O's Grand-class. She is one of the three ships built to the unmodified original Grand-class design (the other two being the Grand Princess and the Golden Princess), with 17 decks (instead of 18 in the later designs) and the "spoiler" right at the back of the ship (moved to the base of the funnel in most later examples of the class). The usual criticism of the exterior of the Grand-class ships, especially the ones with the spoiler, is that they're ugly. I'm not sure if I agree. They're unconventional, yes, unusual, certainly, but at least the designers have tried to give the ships a unique appearance. The ships are actually quite attractive streamlined and rounded in the forward parts, and the spoiler (with the way the corridor accessing it sort of continues forward through the funnel) gives a neat forward-going appearance. And it also breaks up the box-shape of the rear superstructure nicely, as is evident when you look at the spoiler-less Grand ships like P&O's Azura.

Photographs of the Star Princess below were taken on 13 August 2010 from Vattuniemi, showing the ship departing from Helsinki's Länsisatama. Click on the image(s) to view full size.

Pulling away from the cruise quay in Hernesaari.
Heading for the deep sea lane.
And on the deep lane, with Pihlajasaari (as usual) in the background.

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