Cruise operator China Cruises has sold its only ship to a Chinese-backed and British Virgin Islands-registered entity called United Empire Investments for an undisclosed price.

The sale of the the 350-berth cruiseship China Star (built 1992) effectively brings to a close the cruise career of this unique SWATH-design vessel, which has been renamed Saipan Star and is being prepared for a future career as a dockside hotel in Saipan, which is the largest of the US-controlled Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific.

Sources familiar with the ship’s new role say the island has become extremely popular with Chinese tourists but suffers from a lack of hotel capacity. Basing the ship there permanently will help address this situation. It will be operated by a Chinese hotel company.

The SWATH design — to which the ship was built — was developed by Wartsila and promised to offer a broad, stable cruise platform with very wide decks. The ship was launched as the Radisson Diamond for a Scandinavian company called Diamond Cruise, which in turn placed the ship under the control of Radisson Seven Seas Cruises (RSSC), known today as Regent Seven Seas.

Kitted out as a deluxe-level cruiseship, the Radisson Diamond could accommodate 350 passengers in suites. While popular with passengers, the ship was not a commercial success for its owner, and was soon taken over by the Finnish Guarantee Board (FGB), although RSSC continued to charter it.

Although the SWATH design was marketed as the future of cruiseship design, it proved unsuccessful from an operational standpoint. The two engine rooms — one in each hull — required two sets of engineers and high levels of equipment duplication. The ship’s low speed of 12.5 knots also limited the scope of itineraries that could be scheduled.

The pitfalls of the SWATH design resulted in it never being repeated again for any other cruiseship.

The FGB sold the ship to Hong Kong casino cruise operator Asia Cruiser Club in 2005, which renamed it Asia Star. Its slow speed was of little concern for its new career in the overnight casino cruise trade. In 2011, Asia Cruises sold it to China Cruises, which spent $20m refitting it as the China Star.

The ship was supposed to have launched a new cruise service between China and Taiwan, but when the necessary permits were not forthcoming, it was instead chartered to other Hong Kong-based casino cruise operators.