SunStone Ships, the Miami based expedition cruise ship tonnage provider, has decided to move to a new class of newbuildings after the Chinese yard that as been building Infinity class ship for the company walked out of the contract, said Niels- Erik Lund, CEO of the company.

“They have informed us that they will not be building ship seven. We do not know why, and are not happy about this,” Lund told CruiseBusiness.com. China Merchants group has built six 8,200 gross ton Infinity class ships for SunStone Ships and the seventh vessel, which had been intended to be called Ocean Discoverer, was due for delivery next year. However, it will not be built now.

SunStone Ships would now switch its focus to order ships of the boundless class that it has been developing for some time. The projected ships would be larger than the Infinity class, with a gross tonnage in the region of 12,000 to 13,000 and they would have accommodation for 200 to 300 passengers compared to 140 on the Infinity class vessels

“Our specifications have been finished and we have been negotiating with approx. 20 shipyards, at this time we are down to three shipyards, and hope to finalise a framework agreement very soon,” Lund said.

OSK-ShipTech in Denmark has designed the Boundless class ships, whereas the Infinity class design came from the Ulstein Group in Norway, Lund said.