Why some well know ships will disappear from the scene in 2010

The cost of conversion of an old cruise liner to meet the requirements of SOLAS 2010 rules will in many cases be so high (possibly costing up to €20 million) that most of the vessels that would require such a conversion will be taken out of service.

SOLAS Regulations allowed for a phased retro-fit to older ships with the requirements starting after 2005 when all passenger ships had to be fitted with sprinkler systems. The problem now arises that the SOLAS 1974 regulations which will come into force 1st October 2010 are almost impossible to comply with for older vessels due to the complexity and cost required to bring them into compliance.

This will be the final incremental application of the amendments introduced to enhance the fire protection, detection and extinction requirements for passenger ships built to comply with SOLAS 1960, up to those of SOLAS 1974 that came into force in May, 1980.

While all of the requirements of SOLAS 1974, Chapter II-2 are to be complied with, in many cases some of these older vessels already comply with part of the new requirements (SOLAS 1974) in which case it is only the requirements for the restriction of combustible materials now need to be addressed.

This will have significant impact, entirely related to the replacement of fire protection, detection and extinction systems, for those vessels that comply with the requirements of SOLAS 1974 rather than SOLAS 1960. However, it may not be economically viable in way of the high anticipated cost and the likely return for the rest of the working life of the ship to refit these vessels to comply.

By 2010 no combustible materials will be allowed anywhere in the construction of any passenger ship. In this case ships built under SOLAS 1948 regulations that permitted the use of such materials will be the ones most affected. It is anticipated that about 20 ships will still be in operation 2010.

The number of passenger ships built between 1960 and 1970 and still in operation average about 30. Many of these ships will probably contain significant amounts of combustible materials and will therefore be affected by SOLAS 2010 amendments.

A conversion of a vessel to fulfill SOLAS 2010 is expected to be between €5 million to €20 million which means in most cases the price of a conversion exceeds the value of the ship so expect most of these ships to be taken out of service and scrapped or converted to hotel ships, like Queen Elizabeth 2.