The Norwegian Breakway is one year old this week. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a particularly auspicious birthday.  As the cruise ship  entered New York harbor yesterday, after a seven day cruise, the captain reported some sort of problem related to the ship’s azipods, which prevented it from docking.  Like most new cruise ships, the 1,068-foot Norwegian Breakway, which can carry 3,969 guests plus its crew of 1,651, does not have conventional shaft mounted propellers or rudders. Instead, it is powered by propellers mounted on streamlined pods, which can rotate, and therefore also serve as the ship’s rudders.  The ship also has three bow thrusters.

The Norwegian Breakway was scheduled to dock at around 7AM. This coincided with peak currents in the Hudson River, which can approach 3 knots. The ship requested tug assistance and was docked by around 10:30 AM, at roughly slack water.

The delay on disembarking reportedly did not go over well with some of the roughly 4,000 passengers. The Daily News reported: ‘Passengers said tempers boiled over as those aboard the ship waited hours to reach port, leading to screaming matches, and pushing and shoving.  “It got a little chaotic,” says Ashley Hernandez, 30, as she disembarked. “It was really unorganized. There were people fighting when we got off the ship.”‘   The New York Post referred to “panic” and “chaos” while also quoting one passenger who thought that the situation was handled well.

Apparently whatever the azipod problem was, it was expected to delay the ship’s next departure by only about an hour. The Norwegian Breakway is based in New York and is the largest cruise ship home-ported in the harbor.

Pod propulsion is 6-9% more fuel efficient than conventional propulsion systems. Unfortunately, pods have a poor track record of reliability.  See our post from last November — Pods Strike Again – RCCL’s Allure of the Seas Pulled for Repairs.  Also, Celebrity Millennium Out for Rest of Season – More Pod Propulsion Problems