Norwegian shipping line Hurtigruten has placed its largest ever order for up to four new 600 passenger explorer vessels, designed by Rolls-Royce and to be built by Kleven Verft
Hurtigruten, Norway’s world famous coastal shipping line, started in 1893 as a service carrying passengers and goods from Bergen in the south to Kirkenes in the far north, providing a vital link to a total of 34 towns and villages along the way. It still operates on the same route, but is now seeing a rising demand for adventure tourism, so the trip has become more of a tourist experience than an economic lifeline. One vessel leaves Bergen each day, taking eleven days to complete the round trip.
In recent years, Hurtigruten has extended its activities, with several of the newer ships engaged on seasonal adventure cruising to Svalbard in northern Norway, Iceland, Greenland and in Antarctic waters. They can also operate the traditional coastal service. This year there are now four Hurtigruten ships engaged in this type of cruising, and from 2017 the company will offer explorer travel to additional new destinations such as the Amazon rainforest and Arctic Canada.
To meet the forecast rise in demand, Hurtigruten is expanding the adventure cruising side of the business significantly, with the largest investment in the company’s 120 year history. Rolls-Royce has signed a contract to design two new Hurtigruten ships for expedition cruising in polar waters, with options for two more. Following an international competition Norway’s Kleven shipyard in Ulsteinvik, a longstanding partner, has secured the contract to build the vessels.
“People no longer want to spend their holidays being passive spectators,” said Daniel Skjeldam, Hurtigruten CEO. “The new adventure traveller is looking for authentic experiences, which is why sedentary, standardised travel packages are becoming less popular and active adventure travel is booming. We offer real experiences in local environments, just steps away from wildlife.”
Rolls-Royce has worked closely with Hurtigruten and Kleven to develop the NVC design to meet the owner’s tough requirements and the polar weather conditions in which the vessels will operate.
The new ships are designed specifically for adventure-rich expedition voyages in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, as well as traversing Norway’s long coastline and will be equipped with advanced environmentally friendly technology to minimise emissions, underlining Hurtingruten’s commitment to sustainability.
Guests will be able to attend onboard lectures about the destinations lead by experts in history, zoology, botany and environmental science. Experienced expedition teams will accompany passengers on educational excursions to isolated places only accessible by ships or smaller boats. Activities will range from climbing and kayaking to rib-boat tours, whale and sea eagle safaris.
The new cruise ships will be around 140m long with 23.6m beam and 5.3m draught with accommodation and facilities for passengers and crew spread over nine decks. They will also have a cargo hold with side port loading for operation on the Hurtigruten Norwegian coastal service, which can alternatively house a fleet of RIB tenders to take passengers ashore on expeditions and wildlife observation excursions.
In addition to comfortable accommodation for up to 600 passengers in 300 cabins, plus crew and shore expedition leaders, there will be a top deck with a large observation lounge, pool and saunas. On lower decks will be the main restaurant plus several fine dining areas, a gym and massage rooms, a shopping zone, a multi-purpose activity centre with lecture halls and an immersive science centre.
As the new ships will sail very long distances in the course of a year, some of it in ice infested waters, both strength and low propulsion power for a given speed are required from the hull design, which meets Polar ice class. The shallow draught will allow access to a wide variety of smaller ports and near shore anchorages. To provide a stable and easily propelled hull form, the patented Rolls-Royce Environship design principles were used, with a near vertical bow and integrated bulb to improve performance in a seaway and thereby enhance passenger comfort.
In addition to the innovative ship design with wave piercing bow, Rolls-Royce will supply an integrated package of technology and equipment. Among the deliveries will be the award winning Unified Bridge, which represents a complete redesign of the ship bridge environment. Consoles, levers and software interfaces will have a common look and feel, resulting a comfortable, ergonomic, clutter free and ultimately more safe and efficient working environment for the captain and his team on the bridge. A detailed overview of the other equipment selected for these advanced ships and how they will be built will feature in the next edition of in-depth.
The first of these new ships is scheduled for delivery during 2018 with the second following a year later.