Croatia's Brodosplit reports progress in building polar cruise ship for Quark Expeditions

In June 2018, Brodosplit said it has signed a 110 million euro ($121 million) deal with Quark Expeditions to build the ship.

Brodosplit has installed a new cabin space block section of the future ship that will be named Ultramarine, the company told SeeNews in an emailed statement last week.

The vessel will be ready to have its inaugural Antarctic season in 2020-2021.

"The new ship of Quark Expeditions is the first of a kind as a combination of most up-to-date technology, long-term operational capability and advanced security systems, all in order to push up the limits of polar research," the company said.

The ship will be 128 meters long and 21.5 meters wide, and will be the most luxurious polar cruise ship in the world with 103 cabins and 116 crew members. It will offer spacious apartments, as well as double and quadruple cabins, and will carry two helicopters.

In May, Brodosplit delivered a new cruise ship of Polar Class 6 to the Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions and has signed a deal for the construction of a sister vessel for the same client.

The Split-based company designs and builds ships including tankers, product/chemical/bulk carriers, container vessels, passenger vessels, car passenger ferries and more. Its clients include ship-owners and companies from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, England, Greece, Norway, Russia, India, Mexico and the United States, among others.

($=0.905874 euro)