Liverpool-based hotel group Signature Living has put a veteran Portuguese cruiseship it bought at auction back on sales lists after calling off plans to refurbish it for Mediterranean tours.
Cuise industry sources said Signature is asking for €3.9m ($4.31m), which is about the same as its winning bid last December.
The company had big plans for the 9,600-gt Funchal (built 1961). It was, according to the Signature's promotional literature, to be refurbished into the “world’s ultimate floating beach club”, and operate party cruises out of the Spanish island playground of Ibiza.
Promised luxury
“The first of its kind, our exclusive beach club cruise will be decked out with luxury accommodation, a deluxe swimming pool, amazing bars and restaurants and on-deck entertainment from the world’s top DJs,” the company said on its website.
Sources following Signature's plans suggested it proved to be a bigger project than it could handle.
The company took almost a year to pay for the ship, requiring several extensions before the amount was paid in full in October. Ownership was only then transferred to SGL Cruises, a Madeira-registered offshore company.
The vessel, which has been laid up since the collapse of Portuscale Cruises in early 2015, would require a substantially larger amount of cash to be certified for further trading.
Work would include removing asbestos remaining onboard, replacing lifeboats, auxiliary engines, generators and the air-conditioning system, and upgrading the main engine to run on low-sulphur fuel.
All these costly renovations would have to be undertaken before the installation of the promised luxury accommodation, deluxe swimming pools, amazing bars and beach clubs.
Alternative plan
Signature is said to have studied an alternative plan to use the ship as a floating hotel and party venue in a UK port.
Industry observers said that implementing such a plan would be difficult as local port authorities are hesitant to accommodate a static vessel for fear of being stuck with hefty disposal costs should the venture fail to succeed.
The UK’s Able group, which operates several ports in the Humber estuary and River Tees, recently had to spend what it described as a “small fortune” to remove the Tuxedo Royale, an old ropax ferry that was abandoned in Middlesbrough by its nightclub operator owners in 2010. The partially sunken ship was finally scrapped in September after a costly salvage and environmental clean-up job.
TradeWinds understands there are parties that are interested in the Funchal, including a company that wants to turn the ship into an upscale boutique hotel in its original homeport of Lisbon.
Signature did not reply to a request for comment.
