Wärtsilä's Powers Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas
Allure of the Seas, the sister ship of Oasis of the Seas, has been handed over to Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL) by STX Europe's shipyard in Turku, Finland. The 361 meter long ultra modern vessel is powered by six Wärtsilä 46 engines, including three 12-cylinder and three 16-cylinder Wärtsilä 46 engines in V-configuration, and Wärtsilä 7500-horsepower bow thrusters with a combined power output of some 20 MW that make the vessel easy to manoeuvre.
Over the decades, Royal Caribbean International has had several of the world's most innovative ships in its fleet, and as its partnership with Wärtsilä stretches back 40 years, most of them have been powered by Wärtsilä engines. Just 12 months ago, Oasis of the Seas, the world's most innovative cruise ship at that time was delivered.
"Allure of the Seas is Oasis' sister ship, with the same propulsion setup, the same thrusters, and the same specifications," said Fred Danska, Director, Cruise Business at Wärtsilä.
Allure of the Seas is 361 metres long, has the gross tonnage of 225,000, has 2700 staterooms, 16 decks and can accommodate about 6400 guests and a crew of 2200. She has 21 swimming pools and whirlpools, 24 restaurants, a floating park with 12,000 plants and more than 2600 theatre seats.
Like Oasis, the Wärtsilä engines installed in Allure also have common-rail injection. Combined with electronic control, this means that the fuel injection's timing, profile and duration can all be controlled accurately and even take place in stages, to provide improved low-speed operation, better load control and longer periods between overhauls.
Wärtsilä common rail systems also ensure better combustion at all operating speeds and loads, lower fuel consumption, reduced NOx emissions and a reduction in exhaust emissions - giving smokeless operation at various engineloads. In engines of older design, it is practically impossible to optimize the fuel injection characteristics for different loads and different fuels.
