The wouldbe buyer of a Salamis Lines cruiseship whose sale ran into problems is working with the Cypriot shipowner to honour a charter arrangement with start-up Pampa Cruises, the Argentinian operator said.
Pampa Cruises chief executive Diego Insaurralde revealed the negotiations after Salamis told the Cyprus Stock Exchange that the sale of the 15,400-gt cruiseship Salamis Filoxenia (built 1975) had been cancelled and that it would pocket a $770,000 deposit.
Insaurralde told TradeWinds that despite reports in cruise media to the contrary, his company was not to be the buyer of the vessel. Rather, it had reached a "pre-agreement" with a Mauritius-based investor that would buy the ship and charter it to Pampa.
The ship was to be renamed Arrecife and was scheduled to begin running cruises in February 2019. Those cruises have now been wiped from the company's website.
The Salamis Filoxenia was the second target in Pampa's efforts to launch its cruise operation.
"We are trying to start a permanent cruise line at South America, for that purpose we were searching the appropriate vessel for our beginning," Insaurralde said.
As TradeWinds has reported, its first target was the Salamis Filoxenia's sistership, the 15,200-gt Delphin (built 1975). Insaurralde said that the repairs required for that vessel ultimately prevented Pampa from taking on that vessel.
