Australian mountaineering legend Greg Mortimer signed his name on the first of seven Infinity-class expedition cruiseships that SunStone Ships is building at China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) in Haimen.
The combined naming and delivery ceremony, which was held at the yard last week, marked a major milestone for SunStone and the Chinese shipbuilding industry.
The 8,000-gt Greg Mortimer is the first international standard cruiseship that China has constructed for export, and SunStone president and chief executive Niels-Erik Lund said the builders did an excellent job.
“We are very pleased with the quality and high building standards of CMHI, which are fully at the level of European shipyards. A quality this high will not go unnoticed in the cruise industry,” he said.
The delivery of the Greg Mortimer is also the culmination of Lund’s long-held dream to build a fleet of expedition cruiseships to replace a ragtag assortment of old, converted ships that have formed the backbone of the expedition cruise fleet.
Numerous other expedition cruiseships were ordered at yards in Europe, Asia and the US subsequent to SunStone launching the Infinity project, making the expedition cruise sector the fastest growing segment in the cruise sector, by vessel numbers.
SunStone’s Infinity class ships are state-of-the-art expedition vessels rated to Ice Class 1A, Polar Code 6 and are being built with Safe Return to Port requirements, dynamic positioning capability, and zero-speed stabilisers. The vessels are among the first in the cruise sector to feature the X-Bow by Ulstein Design & Solutions.
While many equally sophisticated expedition cruiseships being built in Europe have met with severe delays due to yard inexperience and financing problems, Lund was especially pleased to point out that CMHI delivered the Greg Mortimer 24 days ahead of schedule.
The vessel has been chartered on a long-term basis to Australian polar expedition cruise operator Aurora Expeditions, a company that was co-founded by Mortimer, whose adventures include climbing Mount Everest without using supplemental oxygen, as well as being the first person to climb Annapurna II by its south face and the first Australian to scale the Vinson Massif, Antarctica’s highest peak.
Other Infinity-class newbuildings underway at CMHI include the Ocean Victory, which is scheduled for delivery October 2020. Five more ships are under construction with deliveries slated up to October 2022.
All vessels were ordered against long-term charter agreements and SunStone holds options for a further three ships.
