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Captain Cook Cruises On Castrol 
When Australia's largest small-ship cruise company, Captain Cook Cruises, first laid plans for its largest floating restaurant and sightseeing vessel, it was always going to be Castrol lubricated. Captain Cook Cruises and Castrol have enjoyed a relationship of over ten years. Now, with a fleet of eighteen vessels spread as far and wide as Fiji, Cairns and the River Murray, Captain Cook Cruises carry around 1,000,000 passengers annually, with over half of that number on Sydney Harbour. "We have always aimed to provide a world-class cruise product," says General Manager Anthony Howarth, son of founder, Captain Trevor Howarth, "and now with the state-of-the-art Sydney 2000, we believe we have the world's best cruising restaurant and sight-seeing vessel in it's class. Even with nine vessels operating here, we had exceeded our capacity and needed a new flagship to take us into the next millennium." Almost seven years since its conception, the Sydney 2000 now graces the world's most beautiful harbour, operating 12 hours-per-day, seven-days-per-week, catering for up to seven hundred guests at a time. Designed specifically for Sydney Harbour and built in Fremantle at a cost of over $10 Million, the 3,000 tonne, 63 metre vessel is powered by two Gardner LG400 15 litre diesel engines coupled to a matching pair of Schottel SRP200 steerable propulsion units. With a draft of just 2 metres, she is designed for efficiency and manoeuvrability, and cruises effortlessly at just 8 knots. Three more identical Gardner LG400s are used elsewhere on the vessel. Two are employed to power the vessel's twin 275 kVA generators, while a third drives a tunnel thruster in the bow. Castrol's ever-popular CRF Multigrade oil is used in each of these 400hp units, and is a low ash multigrade, heavy-duty diesel engine oil that meets API Service Classification CF-4/SG. The Schottel units are filled with Alpha SP150 extreme pressure industrial gear oil with high oxidation and corrosion resistance, while the tunnel thruster uses a similar SP68. The connected hydraulic system relies on Castrol's Hyspin AWH32, offering consistent viscosity under a wide range of temperatures and conditions. "Although we haven't always used Castrol during our twenty-nine years of operation," says Chief Engineer Phil McBeth, "we now know the value of our association. Castrol not only provides a range of products that more than meets our needs, it has back-up and support services that are essential for our type of business." |