Albatros Expeditions and Coral Expeditions are believed to have ordered another small cruise vessel each.
Albatros confirmed it was planning to add a second SunStone ‘’Infinity’class expedition cruise ship to its fleet in 2022.
This ship, to be named ‘Ocean Albatros’, will operate in both Antarctica and Arctic. ‘Ocean Albatros’ will supplement ‘Ocean Victory’, which will be operated by Albatros Expeditions in Antarctica from December, 2020 and is chartered to Victory Cruise Lines for operations in Alaska for the summerseasons.
Both‘Ocean Albatros’ and ‘Ocean Victory’ are 104 m long, and 18 m wide, featuring 93 large cabins, of which 68 are with private observation decks and nine with French balconies.
The vessels are of the highest Ice Class 1A, Polar Code 6 and are being built with Safe Return to Port, Dynamic Positioning and Zero Speed Stabilisers, and also featuring the Ulstein’s X-Bow.
Albatros owner, Soren Rasmussen explained the benefits of the Zero Speed Stabilisers “These give a proven reduction of the roll of the ship of 80 to 85%, even if the ship is not moving. This offers more comfort to our guests, while at the same time making our zodiac operators easier, even in more challenging conditions.”
The company also announced the appointment of Hans Lagerweij as president of its international businesses. Lagerweij has extensive experience in the expedition and small ship cruise industry, and in the past was responsible for managing Quark Expeditions and recently Victory Cruise Lines.
Coral Expeditions was believed to have ordered a sistership to the recently launched ‘Coral Adventurer’.
The new vessel,’Coral Geographer’ was said to be under construction at VARD’s Vietnam shipyard.
No other details were available at the time of writing.
