Following lengthy delays and shipbuilding challenges that forced cancellation of ten voyages in the Antarctic, Norway’s coastal cruise line Hurtigruten this week unveiled its new hybrid cruise ships, which are the first of the kind in the world.
In case all goes well now, MS Roald Amundsen is due to start sailing in 2019 spring.
At the yard where the ship is being built, Kleven verft in Ulsteinvik, Hurtigruten’s chief executive Daniel Skjeldam shared that with Roald Amundsen they were "bursting the limits of what’s been possible.”
In 2017, hotel investor Petter Stordalen and Hurtigruten saved the yard from threatened bankruptcy that delayed the hybrid vessel project including Roald Amundsen and sistership Fridtjof Nansen, scheduled for delivery in 2020. A 3rd ship is also on order.
The new vessels will run on electricity for about half-hour at a time, and are expected to cut carbon emissions and conventional fuel consumption by 20%.
Advertised as “expedition ship”, Roald Amundsen is due to sail through Northwest Passage and to Antarctica in 2019.