Unusual rigs ship naming ceremony in Malta
- Details
The event was managed by Belinda King Creative Productions and saw the ship's Godmother, Elaine Paige perform to an exclusive audience on the cruise ship’s pool deck and a debut of the Seabourn anthem entitled We Sail to See the Lives of Others by Tim Rice was performed. The evening was capped with a fireworks’ display that lit up Valletta Harbour.
Belinda King Creative Productions brought Push the Button on board to handle the technical aspects of the project and they, in turn, asked Unusual to deal with the rigging elements.
Jim Dugan, production manager at Unusual, comments: "Ian Tregaskis, production manager for Push the Button, approached us to provide a truss structure for the main screen which was to be used on board the ship as well, as to assist with the crane operations. While a local crane company was employed in Valletta, the Unusual team was tasked with making sure that everything was lifted onto the ship and removed in a timely manner."
Jim and his colleague Tom Berry flew to Malta to work on the event. "It was an extremely tight schedule to get everything on board. We had a day of quay side pre production before The Ovation arrived at 7am on event day, we had only eight hours to install, then the naming ceremony took place and we had to remove it all again quickly before the ship set sail at midnight – it was essentially a 17 hour turnaround. So while technically the project was fairly simple, logistically it was a huge challenge," commented Jim.
Nick Ewins, managing director at Push The Button, adds: "Having worked with Unusual before - primarily on the engineering side, handling lots of electrical installations and permanent installations, we knew that they would be more than competent in handling the tight turnaround that this project presented.
“We put a lot of very concise plans in action to ensure that everything went smoothly, and together with Jim and Tom, the truss structure was designed and built without a hitch with the equipment required craned from dry land, onto the ship and back again with minimal fuss.”
(Jim Evans)
