SeaWalk: A Good Cruise Pier Choice for Caribbean Islands

A floating pier developed for the fjords of Norway has started to catch on elsewhere, potentially creating new cruise ports worldwide, especially in small or cash-strapped destinations.

Called SeaWalk, the device comes in incremental segments linked by circular, floating pivot points. The head segment has a propulsion unit, and the pier can be motored into position when a ship calls.

The developer of SeaWalk recently reached an agreement with the Port Authority of Jamaica to build and install a pier that will be used to open a cruise operation at Port Royal, a historical town at the end of a peninsula near Kingston.

Port Royal was one of the busiest ports in the Caribbean in the 17th century until a massive earthquake in 1692 caused much of the town's waterfront to sink into the sand and disappear underwater.

Plans have been floated for decades to bring cruise ships to Port Royal but have been thwarted by the fragile ecology of the waterfront archaeological site, which would be disrupted by construction of a fixed pier.

With the SeaWalk plans in hand, the port authority was able to get approval for a port, which is expected to open in the first quarter of 2019. European cruise lines were the first to express an interest.

To date, SeaWalk has installed four piers, in Norway and Sweden, with one more coming online this year in Norway. The original installation, in 2012 in Skjolden, a small town on Norway's longest fjord, has since been removed, as the town no longer wanted cruise calls.

Ships tie up to mooring buoys or set anchors at safe spots. The pier is then tied to the ship rather than the other way around.

The design is an adaptation of technology that has been used in the oil industry in the North Sea, according to SeaWalk's website.

The 750-foot pier at Port Royal will be well away from the sunken city, to protect it. Jamaica expects it to be ready in the first quarter of 2019, with Germany's Aida Cruises identified as the possible first customer.

One country where the cruise situation is ideal for SeaWalk is Cuba, where several small ports outside of Havana need improved cruise infrastructure at a low price.

Source: Travel Weekly