A Greek ferry company has bought a floating hotel operating in the North Sea for conversion into a passengership for the warmer waters of the Adriatic and the Aegean.

Galaxy Maritime, commercial operator of Greek ferry company European Seaways and A-Ships Management, announced last week that it had purchased the 13,336-gt Wind Ambition (built 1974). It has been renamed Prince.

Nikolaos Arkoumanis-controlled A-Ships Management said that over the next two months it will “significantly upgrade” the Meyer Turku-built ship, with a view to employ it in the summer on the lucrative route connecting Brindisi, Italy; the Greek island of Corfu; and the port of Igoumenitsa on the Greek mainland.

A-Ships Management added that the vessel’s maximum capacity will increase to 1,000 passengers, 250 vehicles and 600 beds and its speed to 18 knots.

The Wind Ambition previously belonged to C-bed Floating Hotels, a Dutch company specialising in accommodation vessels for offshore oil exploration and wind park projects in the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the strait of Kattegat and west of the Baltic Sea.

Earlier this year, C-bed Floating Hotels sold another vessel to Greek buyers. The 8,893-gt Wind Solution (built 1969) went to Seajets owned by Marios Iliopoulos. The ship has already been renamed Aqua Solution.

No price details have emerged on either of the deals.

Seajets is also understood to be overhauling the vessel. Seajets has been arguably Greece’s most rapidly expanding ferry operator over the past three years and has a fleet of 18 ships.

C-bed says on its website it has been a first mover in the business of providing floating hotels to the European offshore industry.

However, the company is understood to have been selling its ships because of a lack of work, as offshore business in the North Sea has slowed down.

C-bed is currently left with one ship. Its 7,880-gt Wind Innovation (built 1999) is employed in a windfarm project in North West of England.

Even though the Wind Ambition and Wind Solution are older, even by Greek ferry standards, C-bed has been able to find trading buyers for them because it has rebuilt and kept the ships in excellent condition.

The Wind Ambition was extensively rebuilt in 2010 and the Wind Solution in 2015. Even the Wind Innovation followed, one year later.