Skip to main content

Thank You 500,000 readers

Dicovery Deluxe - PONANT ordered a first of a new class of luxury cruise ships, an icebreaker

Ponant has ordered the world’s first luxury icebreaker expedition cruise ship with an electric hybrid system powered by liquefied natural gas, from Fincantieri's Vard. The contract price is approximately € 270,000,000.00 million or approximately US $324 million. The hull will be classyfied as PC2. The new class of ships, as there are options for more to be built, is eco/enviromental friendly - fueled by LNG and hybrid electricity.
The new luxury icebraking cruiser will be more luxurios, as for pax space ratio, than any other luxury offer in the expedition market - 111 GT per pax!
by Earl of Cruise
Ponant
PONANT´s new cruise icebraker - courtesy: VARD, STERLING DESIGN, PONANT
The 270-passenger, 30,000gt, 150 metre long ship will have three restaurants, spa and wellness facilities, plus 16 Zodiacs and two helicopters in garages.
The hull will be built at Vard Tulcea in Romania, and delivery is scheduled from Vard Søviknes in Norway in the second quarter of 2021. Stirling Design International created the overall design and the PC2 Polar Class hull was designed with Aker Arctic to combine forward sailing modes through compact ice and reverse sailing in extreme ice conditions- Double-Action-Principal (Aker Arctic DAS). Wärtsilä will provide the dual-fuel diesel engines while GTT will supply an innovative LNG storage technology with optimized capacity of 4,500 cubic meters. ABB is supplying the Azipods. The PONANT icebreaker is the very first electric hybrid cruise icebreaker with dual fuel propulsion, featuring high-capacity batteries and LNG storage on board.
The luxury icebreaking cruise ship is specially designed to take passengers to polar destinations such as the true geographic North Pole, the Weddell Sea, the Ross Sea and Peter I Island. "The Polar Class 2 icebreaker is fulfilling the highest standards for environmentally friendly and safe operations", Vard informed.
Ponant
PONANT´s new cruise icebraker - courtesy: VARD, STERLING DESIGN, PONANT

The above order is in addition to the four new 180-passenger ships, where LE LAPÉROUSE and LE CHAMPLAIN currently being built by Vard for Ponant for delivery in 2018. Their two sister ships are to follow in 2019.
ONANT´s new cruise icebraker - courtesy: VARD, STERLING DESIGN, PONANT
PONANT´s new cruise icebraker - courtesy: VARD, STERLING DESIGN, PONANT
The actual unnamed new luxury expedition icebrakers will have 63 cabins (staterooms) and 68 suites with big windows and terasses.
The passengers on board will find three different restaurants - two with panoramic views and a grillrestaurant, a SPA, a Fitness Room and all those nice ameneties that make a luxury vessel.
The passengers will be catered by a crew of 187 men and women.
PONANT
PONANT´s new cruise icebraker - courtesy: VARD, STERLING DESIGN, PONANT
The PONANT icebreaker will also be equipped with two helicopters in in-house hangars. The best place for the helicopters is the bow area, as here are no or only few shear winds, and the bow can be directed easily into the wind.
"This is a really exciting project for us, and we look forward to building the Ponant icebreaker for polar expedition voyages" Roy Reite, CEO and Executive Director of VARD, said.
PONANT
PONANT´s new cruise icebraker - courtesy: VARD, STERLING DESIGN, PONANT
PONANT, a subsidiary of the French Artemis Group, the finacials affair group of the Pinault family, headquartered in Marseille, France, was founded in 1988 by Jean Emmanuel Sauvée and a dozen him accompanying Merchant Navy officers from France.
PONANT has established itself as the refenrence for a new style of luxury cruises with its unique concep of sea travel, combining exceptional itineraries and five star facilities aboard small capacity ships. PONANT is the only French flag cruise line, and world number one for polar cruises.







Ponant
pavillon francais - courtesy PONANT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review - An Aegean dream mediated onboard OLYMPIC VOAYGER

OLYMPIC VOYAGER took me for a cruise that became an Aegean dream to me.  A historic review from an experience in 2001 ... OLYMPIC VOYAGER, formerly named OLYMPIA VOYAGER, renamed as the Olympic Comittee arrogantly "wished", was built in Hamburg by BLOHM+VOSS . The hull design is based on the BUNDESMARINE MEKO frigates which had been developed by the shipbuilder. Originally the two vessels, the sister is OLYMPIC EXPLORER, should have become fast ferries for a SUN LINES subsidiary. But the design was totally altered to fast cruise vessels, when the two rivalling families (Keusoglou and Potamianos) did overcome their differences. ROYAL OLYMPIC CRUISES, a merger from EPIROTIKI LINES and SUN LINES, intended with the two speed cruisers a 7 day/night 3 continent cruises experience - a novelty. Athina (Athens) Αθήνα [ aˈθina ]- Istambul - Alexandria. by Earl of Cruise OLYMPIC VOYAGER at speed - promotional picture of defunct ROYAL OLYMPIC CRUISES It did not ha...

Ocean Liners in Movies or Films at Sea (updated Nov 2017)

For liners and the shipping companies movies and films had been a top marketing tool Movies or Films and liners at sea, had been intriguing me since I have read about in my youth in LUXUSLINER - BILDER EINER GROSSEN ZEIT by Lee Server ( THE GOLDEN AGE OF OCEAN LINERS ). But earlier, mot only since my first crossing, I was keen watching movies with liners in it, and disapointed, which was an understatement, when I realized the films have been made in a set ashore in some movie "factory". That was after my first crossing.   by Earl of Cruise an essay in progress `Sabrina´, Humphrey Bogart in the office, while LIBERTÉ is sailing out of New York harbor - screenshot Ocean liners, especially those of the luxury category, had been the location of dramas, love stories, thrillers, suspense and catastrophies sinde film was born, or nearly. In this list, the most descriptions are taken from Wikipedia, as I guess no one can expect having seen all these films ... otherwise I w...

Germany and HAPAG - A Journey through History

HAMBURG-AMERIKANISCHEPACKETFAHRT ACTIEN GESELLSCHAFT - HAPAG or HAMBURG AMERICA LINE is reflecting, as Germany, the LLOYD of Bremen, two times of rsing and two times of devasting downfall and a third rise. BORUSSIA , 1856, First Day Cover 1956 of Deutsche Bundespost - own collection Once Germany´s biggest shipping line HAPAG / HAMBURG-AMERIKANISCHE PACKETFAHRT ACTIEN GESELLSCHAFT-LLOYD, merged with it former old Hanseatic rival NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD in 1970, to now HAPAG-LLOYD, had its peaks and downs, but rose each time on its own to new hights, without any state subsidies. As German mail subsidiaries did never cover the costs for purchasing or mainting the vessels ordered for the specific German mail lines.   by Earl of Cruise In this article I used most German Wikipedia links, as they proved to be mostly of better research quality, and surprisinf to me, some English lines and liners have only German written articles, for the others, English Wiki links are to ...

Thank You 500,000 readers

HISTORY - The CUNARD - WHITE STAR Liner rms QUEEN ELIZABETH (1938-1972)

Over years, in my early youth, the QUEEN ELIZABETH was shaping my mind for the perfect ocean liner, despite having made my first experiences with a liner onboard the HANSEATIC (1), ex EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND, ex EMPRESS OF JAPAN. When leaning at the rail of HANSEATIC entering the port, my eyes where every where and I wished to by a camera, I took all in. And when seeing the QUEEN ELIZABETH with my own eyes, the nice behaving young boy turned into a tomboy, that my grandmére was no longer able to tame ... I did draw quite a lot of looks, back then. I found, while on research, this article and thought it interesting publishing in my blog: written and published by John Sheperd at liverpoolships.org editing and comments by Earl of Cruise I ( John Shepard ) joined the CUNARD LINE in March 1962 as an Assistant Purser and sailed the QUEEN ELIZABETH throughout that year, before transferring to the Liverpool-based CARINTHIA in November, where I remained as Crew Purser for the next five...

Luxury Expedition - PONANT has reached 30 years

PONANT , France's number 2 cruise company and world leader in polar expeditions celebrates 30 years of existence. It was on 1 April 1988 that the adventure began in Nantes, where 14 young Merchant Navy officers aged 23 to 29, including Jean-Emmanuel Sauvée, still active as CEO, and Philippe Videau, decided to create the company, which first took the name COMPAGNIE des ÎLES du PONANT (it became COMPAGNIE du PONANT in 2009 and simply PONANT in 2014). PONANT is the only cruise company in France flying the Tricolore. by Earl of Cruise based on an article by Vincent Groizeleau at Mer et Marine LE PONANT in the port of Bonifacio, Corsica - Sourece: Wikipedia ( original seize ) The first ship, built in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, was born in 1991. It is the sailboat and cruise vessel LE PONANT , a modern three-masted ship of 85.5 meters long with 32 cabins, still in service. LE PONANT´s sails became the logo of PONANT.  LE LEVANT - Source: Wikipedia ( original seize ) ...

HISTORY - AUSTRO AMERICANA the Austro-Hungary shipping line into the new world

Not many know about the Austro-Hungary shipping line, AUSTRO AMERICANA , which sailed out of Trieste to the Americas. Austro-Hungary and shipping? You may ask ... you may have heard about Vienna Walz, coffe house culture, Hotel Sacher and its famous chocolate cake, the Prater, chateau Schönbrunn, the Fiakers - the famous horse carriages and such things. But passenger shipping lines? There has been AUSTRO AMERICANA and ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD , renamed in LLOYD TRIESTINO after 1918 and after purchased by EVERGREEN renamed in Italia Marittima. The actual company ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD is a new formed management company situated in Austria.   by Earl of Cruise KAISER FRANZ JOSEH I. the biggest liner of AUSTRO AMERICANA - own collextion Parts of my family lived for a long time in the Austro-Hungary empire, which can be qualified as a "United Nations of the Balkan". Having traces into Austria-Hungay, the realm of Hungary in special, it is a pleasure for me making thes...

ss NORMANDIE 1935 - 1942 IX

s s / te NORMANDIE starting from cold Owners: COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE BUILDERS: PENH Ö ET, St. Nazaire, France   by Stephen Carey © , editing by Earl of Cruise   This document is almost exclusively about the engineering aspects of NORMANDIE , mainly on how to start her up from cold. If you are looking for photos of the passenger spaces, there is a plethora of them on the web, in Facebook groups - Admirers of the ss Normandie , ss Normandie photographic file , The French Ocean Liners / Les Paquebots Fran ç ais , ss Normandie , GREAT LINERS OF THE PAST & PRESENT , and others, Pinterest and in articles about NORMANDIE here in the blog, please see at the end of the article. Using "ss" for NORMANDIE is quite incorrect, as NORMANDIE was a Turbo Electric vessel and not a steamship, therefore NORMANDIE should be adressed as "te".   by Earl of Cruise te / ss NORMANDIE berthed in Le Havre, Gare Maritime May 29th, 1935 - colouring courtesy ...

HISTORY - HAMBURG-SÜD and the CAP express liner

The CAP express liners of HAMBURG-SÜD, CAP FINISTERRE, CAP TRAFALGAR, CAP POLONIO and CAP ARCONA, are known worldwide for their luxury, renowned service on board and grandeur. Their successors of the 60s, the CAP SAN vessels, have not been that elegant, but truly first class and were known as the "White Swans" of the Atlantic. by Earl of Cruise HAMBURG-SÜD´s SANTA TERESA in Santos - courtesy HAMBURG-SÜD Since its formation in 1871, HAMBURG-SÜDAMERIKANISCHE DAMPFSCHIFFFAHRTS-GESELLSCHAFT ( HSDG or HAMBURG-SÜD ) has evolved from a conventional freight and passenger shipping company into a global operating transport logistics organisation. Today, it ranks among the world's ten largest container shipping lines and is one of the leading providers in the North-South trades. T ill recently it was a member of the successful Oetker Group, one of the largest and best-known family enterprises in Germany. The heirs and owners sold HAMBURG-SÜD to the Danish MAERSK Group ...

Panama Papers - Caribbean Billions And a German yard group

The Panama Papers focus again dubios Caribbean Billions by Earl of Cruise The new GENTING purchase NORDIC YARDS, source wikipedia Panama Papers and a German Shipbuilder Not since the publication of the Panama Papers, a German yard group got dubios money transfers - the WADAN YARDS and his former owner the Russian Billionaire Andrei Burlakow got into sight of the German tax police. Burlakow, with connections to the Russian Maffia died by the bullets of a hitman. Prior to his shooting Bulakow sold his German entity, the WADAN GROUP, in 2009 to Igor Yusufov - his investment company FLC West.  Vitaly Yusufov, courtsey from ex NORDIC YARDS Jussufow is an e x minister and GASPROM board member. WADAN became NORDIC YARDS and would be run by the son Vitaly Yusufov . It had been haggled, money shifted and cashed ... employees had the dead end - unemploy ment. in June 2015, the HypoVereinsbank reported in a money laundering display flashy money flows in favor of NORDIC...