Seabourn Venture - A tow around Italy
The extraordinary journey of the Seabourn Venture
Navimeteo provides marine forecast services in support of Mariotti and Cimolai.
There is a sector of the maritime industry where the accuracy of the marine forecast carries increased importance. This is in transport and towing, at very limited speeds with critical wind and wave operating thresholds. In these circumstances, metocean forecasts are analysed in detail by all the participating companies in advance to identify the most favourable and safe operational “window”.
In these very delicate phases, each element has an extraordinary relevance and decisions are based on collaboration, strong dialogue and continued monitoring. The weather component is certainly one of the key factors in undertaking high risk transports.
Navimeteo, with operational offices in the Port of Chiavari and Falmouth in the UK, provided 24/7 support to the tow operation of Seabourn Venture, the ultra-luxury expedition ship led by the tug Sea Dream from the Cimar shipyard in Porto Nogaro, Trieste to Genoa, and the Mariotti shipyard where she will undergo her final outfitting phase. Navimeteo also provided its support to Cimolai for the delicate operation in San Giorgio di Nogaro, the well-established shipyard of T. Mariotti and Cimolai where the hull was first floated.
Along the route from Trieste to Genoa, a temporary stop was made in Naples to avoid a marked worsening of the marine weather conditions en-route. From the perspective of meteorological navigation, the key factor in making good decisions lies in the limited manoeuvrability and speed of the tow. This requires important and calculated decisions well in advance, with respect to the evolution and propagation of weather systems.
This is the largest artifact ever built by the Porto Nogaro shipyards, and with the help of four pilots, it should not be forgotten that all this was carried out in the month of April, a period statistically subject to the variability due to the frequent transit of perturbed weather systems. The Seabourn Venture safely arrived in Genoa, ontime on Saturday 10th April 2021.
