May 24 (SeeNews) - Croatian shipbuilding company Brodosplit said it has delivered a new polar cruise ship to the Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions and has signed a deal for the construction of a sister vessel for the same client.
"I am extremely proud that we have built one of the most sophisticated cruise ships of Polar Class 6, which has a lot of equipment and can reach the farthest parts of the North and South Pole," Brodosplit board chairman, Tomislav Debeljak, told a news conference on Thursday when the ship named Hondius was delivered to Oceanwide, according to a company statment.
"It is made with a new software and on time, within the budget and it is of a very high quality, and because of all this we received an order for another ship, which is a proof of how extremely satisfied the buyer is," Debeljak added.
The contract for the construction of a second ship with similar dimensions was also signed on Thursday, the company said.
The combined value of the two ships exceeds 100 million euro ($112 million). Some 70% of the components for their construction originated in Croatia.
"When we decided to build such ship not a single shipyard in the Netherlands or Germany could give us guarantees that the ship would be built within the time limit we wanted," Wijnand Van Gessel, owner of Oceanwide Expeditions, told the same news conference.
"I am very pleased that we have built together this ship on time and therefore I have decided we are going to build the sister ship also in Split," Van Gessel said.
Croatia had extended 36 million euro state guarantees to Brodosplit to support the shipyard in building Hondius. The shipyard said it will return the guarantee to the state after the delivery of the ship.
Hondius is 107.6 metres long and 17.6 metres wide. Its two main engines with total power of 4,260 kW provide for a speed of 15 knots. The ship could host 196 passengers in 85 cabins, plus 70 crew members.
Split-based Brodosplit designs and builds ships including tankers, product/chemical/bulk carriers, container vessels, passenger vessels, car passenger ferries and more.
($ = 0.893770 euro)