APRIL 30, 2013 — Lindblad Expeditions' 112 m x 16.5 m adventure cruise ship National Geographic Explorer is at Lloyd Werft, Bremerhaven, Germany. The ship, which specializes in voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic, is scheduled for a three-week stay at the shipyard during which she will undergo comprehensive technical work and class renewal for Det Norske Veritas. 

Lloyd Werft Board Member Rüdiger Pallentin says that work to be completed on the ship in the yard's Kaiserdock 1 by May 15 includes a long list of basic technical work mainly extensive repairs to the thruster, rudder and shaft plant.

The 6,471 gt , 148 passenger ship has to be back in her operational schedule within a relatively short time.

"We understand things like that and it is one of our special talents that we can complete complex jobs inside the shortest possible time," says Mr. Pallentin.

Lloyd Wert is well known for cruise ship repair and conversion, but it is also looking beyond that sector.
 
"We are now looking to tomorrow and the day after tomorrow," says Mr. Pallentin, "to the construction, conversion and overhaul/repair of RoPax ferries and cruise liners, to newbuilding and completion of ships particularly in specialized sectors and in the growing offshore sector - which is also not such a new one for us. Well over 40 years ago we converted the drillship Danwood Ice and just a few years ago we converted Blue Giant and OIG Giant 11 for offshore service. Both were built here as dockships. They are highly complex specialized vessels which are now acquitting themselves very well on the market."

Lloyd Werft has been well-acquainted with this particular specialised shipbuilding sector for many years and Pallentin wants to continue to be part of it and offers a complete catalogue of innovative services which were either developed in the yard itself or were tailor-made to meet the demands and stipulations of marine environmental protection.

There have recently been some structural changes to the shipbuilding and repair industry in Bremerhaven.

"For many years we have complained about shipyards working against each other," says Mr. Pallentin. "That is now history. The amalgamation of former Lloyd Werft subsidiary Rickmers Lloyd and the shipbuilding division of Motorenwerke Bremerhaven into the new German Dry Docks GmbH & Co KG (GDD) means we are now marketing six dry or floating docks jointly and complementing one another on the international market. Even after just a few months, we are already seeing the synergies and advantages of this. All our employees are fully occupied. We at Lloyd Werft continue to specialize in conversion, newbuilding and offshore while GDD concentrates mainly on the repair of merchant and naval ships.

The offshore market in particular has been providing good business for the "new" Lloyd Werft. Work has included the servicing, repair and refit of offshore installation ships and an attractive conversion into a special ship for the revitalization of deep-sea oil and gas reserves. Lloyd Werft says  a potential newbuilding contract involving a large pipe-laying vessel for the offshore sector is also in the works.