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www.marinelink.com 45years including all such projects for Ita-ly?s Saipem and Norway?s Fred Olsen. DDW has also been involved in the initial stages of the reÞ t of the famous Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2). It has been tied up in Port Rashid, Dubai for the past number of years (since No-vember 2008) while her fate has been decided. She is now in DDW-D for un- dertaking classiÞ cation checks prior to her renovation as a luxury ß oating hotel. No shipyard has yet been named to carry out the renovation work.She was built by John Brown & Co. (Clydebank) and delivered in 1969 as a 70,327 tons passenger liner for the trans-atlantic trade, before becoming a world-wide cruise vessel. She carried 2.5m passengers, sailed nearly 6m miles and completed 806 trans-Atlantic crossings during 39 years of service for Cunard. She also saw active service as a troop carrier during the 1982 Falklands War. She was originally built at a steam-pow-ered vessel, changing to diesel-electric power (using nine MAN diesels) dur- ing 1986/7 at Germany?s Lloyd Werft, Bremerhaven. A service speed of 32 knots was achieved after the re-engining operation, which cost some £100m.QE2 Dubai has created a large con- sortium to convert the QE2 into a Þ ve-star hotel with 500 rooms managed by a prestigious international hotel as an operator. The Oceanic Group, a group of deeply-experienced advisers to cruise operators and managers in Asia, will take the lead in managing this project while DDW-D will carry out extensive technical and operational checks prior to her move into Asia.. The vision for the QE2 is for her to become a landmark cultural and tourist attraction-a beacon of luxury, glamour, quality and tradition - in the heart of a leading Asian city that shares her rich maritime heritage and is prepared to give this very special ship the prominent waterfront home she so richly deserves. The consortium will lavish many mil-lions of dollars on this magniÞ cent ship to restore her to the splendour of her glory days as an icon of the very best the world has to offer. A number of Asian cities have ex- pressed interest in securing this historic attraction. An international tourist city in the Far East is to be her Þ rst destination. Plans for the upgrading of the QE2 also include a shopping mall with the Þ nest world leading brands, a QE2 Café offer- ing meals similar to those served during cruises, three Michelin-starred restau-rants, convention and meeting facilities. There will also be an on-board maritime museum displaying QE2 memorabilia and her rich history, along with a collec- tion of treasures of Dubai. On the newbuilding side of DDW-D?s activities, there are three projects cur- rently underway. The yard is building the Prelude FLNG turret for installation into a FLNG currently being constructed by South Korea?s Samsung Heavy In- dustries (SHI). This is a joint venture be- tween Shell, SBM (Offshore) and Tech- nip, and will be the Þ rst such project ever carried out. The turret will be delivered to South Korea in three phases starting in July 2014.The second newbuilding is Aibel?s semi-submersible High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) platform building Dol-win Beta for ABB to be used to convert turbine electricity to direct current in the North Sea wind farm industry. The unit is due for delivery in early 2014. The third newbuilding project is a 400,000 bbls sub-sea storage tank for Premier Oil (UK). The structure will be located on the Solan Field in the UK sector of the North Sea and operated by Chrysaor. MR #3 (42-49).indd 45MR #3 (42-49).indd 453/4/2013 12:40:21 PM3/4/2013 12:40:21 PM
