A piece of Split is heading to the polar regions!
As Morski writes on the 10th of June, 2018, in Split's shipbuilding industry, a brand new cruise ship for cruising the polar regions has been built for the Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions.
Many representatives, partners in construction and financing, friends, numerous special guests and Marija Strikić from Split's Down Syndrome Association were present at the launch ceremony, wishing travellers a safe journey aboard the new vessel, cutting the ceremonial rope, toasting it with champagne and symbolically "launching" the ship into the sea.
''This ship is a symbol of Brodosplit's restructuring and a breakthrough in organisational and technological design because it's built with new software, tools and technology,'' said Tomislav Debeljak, CEO of Brodosplit, before adding the fact that the building of the ship was cost effective, and the way it was constructed involved shorter deadlines and resulted in better production quality.
The polar cruise ship will be the world's first ship of "LR PC6" class that will meet the latest Lloyd Registry requirements for the "Polar Class 6" vessels. It is 107.6 meters in length, 17.6 meters in width, and 15 knots will provide two main engines with a total output of 4,260 kW. It will be able to accommodate 196 passengers in its 85 cabins, which will be taken care of by as many as 70 crew members.
The ship is being built under a new financing model, for its own fleet and for long-term lease.
"I'm very pleased with the quality of the ship, which is already quite well equipped, with built-in drive and a lot of equipment for passenger and crew accommodation. Our team has a great deal of cooperation with the shipyard, and the ship will receive its first polar passengers in June next year,'' said Wijnand van Gessel, owner of Oceanwide Expeditions.
''Hondius is now in her element, the sea; she was successfully launched today at Brodosplit shipyard in Croatia in presence of shareholder and owner Wijnand van Gessel, COO Mark van der Hulst and colleagues of the ships operations team. She will now be berthed alongside to enter the next phase, the outfitting. We are all thrilled on how she looks and can't wait to get her out for seatrails,'' writes Oceanwide Expeditions on Facebook.
The polar cruise ship's passengers will be offered high hotel-like standards as well as various cabins ranging from spacious apartments to two-room and four-room cabins, where they will be provided with multiple secured systems to provide a safe and comfortable stay.
The design and all technical solutions are entirely the work of Brodosplit's project designers who, through this project, have successfully confirmed their key role in positioning Brodosplit high on the list of technical competency and architectural competitiveness.
