The MS Britannia is the flagship of the P&O Cruises fleet, officially named by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in March 2015.
SWL was brought in to design and build the rigging for the naming ceremony, the system that would release the champagne bottle against the hull at the moment the Queen gave the command.
On Friday, 7th March 2015, we were contacted by P&O to design the rigging assembly for the naming of Britannia by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, scheduled for the following Tuesday, 10th March.
In a meeting with Cunard and P&O executives to discuss the design, one requirement was stipulated above all others: the £4,500 bottle of champagne had to break on the letter “I” in Britannia. Precisely there, and nowhere else.
The system had to be designed, built, and fully tested by Monday, 9th March, leaving a single working day in hand. And there was one further complication. The tidal range at the berth was three metres, which meant the rigging could not be fixed. It had to hold constant tension on the bottle while accommodating a continuously changing water level.
The first step was to guarantee the bottle broke exactly where requested. Therefore, a pad eye was welded above the “I” on the hull and proof tested to confirm it would hold.
A wire was then attached to the pad eye and run up to the top of the visitors’ stand. To overcome the three-metre tidal movement, we designed a floating block system that maintained constant tension on the wire regardless of water level, working through a series of five change-of-direction blocks attached to floating weights positioned around 100 metres from where Her Majesty would be standing.
A quick-release mechanism was fitted to the rope near the top of the stand, with an additional rope reeved from it to a control box at the back of the stand. When the Queen pressed the button, a light came on in the control room, the quick-release was activated, and the bottle was sent on its way, on cue and on target.
The task was completed on time, within the client’s budget, and performed exactly as intended. This was a high-pressure job where any failure would have unfolded in front of Her Majesty the Queen, the assembled guests, and the press.
SWL got it done. The champagne bottle smashed precisely on the “I”. A perfect result.
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