Laid up Ocean Countess hit by fire

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 01 December 2013 01 December 2013

Ocean Countess, the1976 built cruise ship of Majestic International, has been hit by fire while the ship has been laid up in Chalkis in Greece, media reports say.

The 17,593 gross ton ship has last traded on charter to Cruise & Maritime Voyages, the UK based operator of chartered tonnage, which used it for a few years after commencing operations in 2009.

The ship was built as Cunard Countess for Cunard Line and it was the first unit of two similar, high density vessels with accommodation for about 800 passengers the company introduced in the mid-1970s. Their hulls were built in Denmark and they were towed to Italy for fitting out.

Court approves Kristina Cruises' debt restructuring application

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 30 November 2013 30 November 2013

A court in Finland has approved an application by Kristina Cruises, the owner and operator of the 12,700 gross ton Kristina Katarina, to commence debt restructuring of the company. The application was backed by the two biggest creditors of the family owned company that is based in Kotka in south eastern Finland.

Earlier this week, the company terminated a programme of fly cruises in the Canary Islands from Finland to stem losses and filed an application with the regional court is Southern Karelia to enter debt restructuring, a procedure similar to Chapter XI in the US.

It plans to resume its operations in the spring.

Today the company said it would commence talks with its 200 strong staff about layoffs or redundancies as it has closed down its operations for at least four months. Such talks are requirement of the Finnish law, but the law does not require that the parties agree on the measures to be taken.

Kristina Katarina was built in Poland in 1982 and it underwent an extensive refit before entering service with Kristina Cruises in 2010. The company operates the vessel under the Finnish flag and it also sells its cruises on the Finnish market, which has suffered from a severe downturn of the Nordic country's economy.

 

Thomson Celebration re-enters service with 24 balcony cabins

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 30 November 2013 30 November 2013

Thomson Celebration of Thomson Cruises in the UK has re-entered service following a refit in Germany that saw the vessel upgraded to the TUI Travel plc unit's Platinum class, which included adding balcony cabins.

A total of 18 existing cabins on the uppermost deck of the 33,930 gross ton vessel that started life as Noordam of Holland America Line in 1984 received balconies. Six new cabins were built in the space previously occupied by a cinema on Broadway deck that houses the principal public rooms of the ship, deck plans issued by Thomson Cruises on their website show.

 

Fincantieri strengthens non-passenger ship business with two deals

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 29 November 2013 29 November 2013

Fincantieri, the world's largest builder of cruise ships and major builder of large ferries, continues its expansion outside the passenger ship construction sector by two agreements.

The company, which received €787 million worth of merchant vessel orders in 2012, a fall of 34% year on, has agreed to build a 9,000 gross ton oceanographic research vessel to the Norwegian government.

Fincantieri's merchant vessel business area that entails ferries and cruise liners, accounted for 56% of the group's total new orders of €1,39 billion in 2012, the state owned company's annual report for last year shows. However, in the previous year, the share had been higher at 63% of a total of new orders of €1.86 billion.

Earlier this week Fincantieri attended Italy-Russia Business Forum in Trieste, where the company and a Russian counterpart signed an agreement to define plans for a drillship featuring frontline innovation and technology, and the securing of a contract to build a semisubmersible floating platform for the transportation of nuclear submarine reactor compartments.

"Fincantieri will work together with the Krylov State Research Centre, one of the world's most prestigious naval research centres, on a project to develop a drill ship able to operate in particularly difficult conditions, in full respect of the environment and crew safety. This highly advanced vessel will be able to navigate in ice up to 1.5 metres thick and ambient temperatures of -40°C and will have a four-month operational autonomy," the company said in a statement.

In July, Fincantieri and the Krylov Centre signed a framework agreement spanning several sectors, including the offshore one. Just four months later, the two companies are reaping the first major tangible rewards of this undertaking, in the form of the memorandum signed at Trieste.

In December 2012, Fincantieri acquired controlling interest in STX OSV, the Singapore listed builder of offshore services tonnage, and moved on to acquire the company in full, whereby it added a further business area to complement merchant and naval vessels plus megayachts.