Our journey began when SD’s Director of Marine Services, Gareth Preston, visited Rotterdam to survey both the Wind Star and Wind Surf in November 2020.
Although we were originally invited to survey the vessels when they were moored in the Caribbean earlier in the year, unfortunately the Covid pandemic meant that work would need to be delayed until the winter when restrictions were eased.
After an initial survey, the first repairs team set to work in the new year and began carrying out some hard surface repairs and installing marine LVT Vinyl flooring to both ships.
Following on from this, a number of orders began rolling in and the SD team were commissioned to carry out a series of repairs across 178 cabins on the Wind Surf, including French polishing, joinery, silicone and subsequent hard surface work.
We also were asked to remove four cabins completely, taking them back to bare steel so that the deck could be replaced, and then reinstall each cabin and redecorate back to passenger standards.
As Windstar’s flagship ship, Wind Surf is a five-mast staysail schooner that is currently the largest sailing cruise ship in the world, and can carry up to 342 passengers in a total of 150 ocean-view staterooms, 18 ocean-view suites and 2 deluxe bridge suites, along with a crew of 210.
In addition to our work on the Wind Surf, the team also carried out similar repairs to 74 cabins on the Wind Star, successfully recovering all cabin furniture and banquette furniture in the Amphora Restaurant.
In comparison to the Surf, the Wind Star is a smaller 4-masted sailing ship accommodating 148 guests. With four decks, two restaurants and a gross tonnage of 5,307, Wind Star is closer to experiencing travel on a private small ship for its passengers.
During our time in Rotterdam we supplied wallpaper for various areas on-board both vessels, redecorating all 74 cabins on the Star and re-spraying the ceilings of over 250 cabins across the two.
The team replaced the ceilings to the Pool Bar on both the Star and the Surf, the latter of which also included a large canopy that was templated by SD and installed on-site.
Finally, as part of the safety upgrade on-board we also supplied labour to replace 60 fire screen doors across the Wind Surf to ensure that the ship’s safety measures are up to the highest standard ready for re-birth in August.
We are incredibly proud of the work that the SD Marine team have achieved over the past six months, with over 30 full-time and sub-contracted team members on site carrying out a myriad of tasks, it’s been an extensive project for us and we are so pleased with the results.
After completing our work this July, the SD team are delighted to have been invited to survey the Wind Spirit in Tahiti as the ship prepares for Dry Dock in Singapore next January 2022.
For more information on our marine services, please visit https://www.sdsealants.co.uk/marine-cruise-ship-repairs/
