In 2019 we were thrilled to have a played a role in helping Windermere Lake Cruises Ltd secure permission from South Lakeland District Council to complete the assembly of its brand new 300 seater cruise ship on the shore of Lake Windermere at Ulverston.
The multi-million pound investment has made the ship the largest craft to be launched onto Windermere in 80 years. As Windermere is land-locked, it wasn’t possible to build the vessel in a traditional shipyard. As such, modules were built in Europe and brought to the lake shore by road, before being assembled.
We were asked to evaluate the noise impact from the assembly process and how it might affect the local residents, in order for the Local Authority to grant a Section 61 consent for the works. Damen Shipyards Group provided us with their detailed programme for the ship build including the types of operations required and the tools used to carry out the works.
Having identified the nosiest operations, we were able to advise the local community on how we have addressed those with Damen. The contractors provided advance notice to local residents of when nosiest of operations were to take place and we monitored noise levels throughout and worked with the contractors to adjust operations if required.
Windermere Lake Cruises Ltd is ranked by Visit England as one of the top 10 paid for visitor attractions in the country and the company is always striving to improve its visitor experience, support the Lake Districts Visitor Economy and help create employment opportunities.
The new ship is celebrated its first year in service in November 2021, despite the pandemic. The ship is fully accessible, and is designed to operate all year round – find out more: windermere-lakecruises