Viking Sky Cruise Ship looses 4(?) engines??

[Pascal]

Their saying engine oil level. Ha! What a twist. Fuel is the only thing that makes sense.

Apparently they just pulled data from the ship computers to find the cause. These are almost new engines full of sensors and recorders. Even small yachts have had system monitors for years.

the rolling or pitching motion can be such that the pick up will be exposed. Actually I once had a Northern light genset shut down on Exuma bank after one larger than average wave with a non stabilized boat

[rustybucket]

I mean the low-oil shutdown makes sense.... but really... I mean shouldn't the capt have the ability to override that auto-shutdown?

If it were my boat, and I was in charge of all those people's lives and staring down a potential hard grounding in nasty seas I wouldn't care if I melted the engines, I would not want them to stop until they were seized. I'm good with warnings...etc and maybe an initial shutdown, but I'd want a way to override that and fire them back up.

Sometimes I really feel like we outsmart ourselves with all the 'smart' sensors deciding when stuff should shut down or quit working.

[Westfield 11]

It seems that left unobserved the corporate world will tend to prioritize protection of machinery over people. They certainly do in this case. I understand there is an obligation to protect and preserve the shareholders capital investments, but what about protecting the passengers?

[Boatsb]

I cant believe there is not an emergency override. Even outboard motors with oil injection had a low oil mode where they limited rpm for emergencies.

[Pascal]

If there is one condition we’re you want a shut down it is oil pressure. An engine may survive a brief overheat, low fuel pressure etc but it will not survive a complete loss of oil pressure. It may survive low pressure or a brief loss, but anything sustained and it s game over. At least in this case they were able to get anchors to set and restart the engines later on

[SEVEN]

Someone is getting fired.

[Dan Mapes]

From what I gather, the oil level was within spec but on the low side. I think that says there is a design issue associated with the tanks and pickups. It would be interesting to see a schematic of the lube system, especially the shape of the tanks and capacity.

[Finalee]

I would like to the schematic too. I don't understand..

[krush]

I mean the low-oil shutdown makes sense.... but really... I mean shouldn't the capt have the ability to override that auto-shutdown?

LOL the captain overide an auto shutdown? On these real ships, the mates don't run the ship, the engineers do.

With that said, the automation system should have a time delay on engine shutdown in case of slight variation in oil pressure. Also, assuming the guys in the engine room knew their stuff, this should not have been a big deal to solve or overide. I think there is much more to the story.