A major milestone was reached in the building of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ Hanseatic inspiration which started her journey on February 16 from the Romanian site of VARD Group in Tulcea to Norway's VARD Langsten shipyard.
Work on the outer hull of Inspiration has been underway in the Romanian shipyard since the beginning of construction in September 2017. Ship's interior will be fitted out in Norway.
On Saturday, February 16, when the ship took to the water for the first time, her 6,500-ton hull was lowered into the water via a lifting platform at the shipyard in Tulcea in a process that took 3 hours.
The trip of about 4,000 nautical miles to the VARD Langsten shipyard close to Alesund started on February 16 and will take the hull through Istanbul and Gibraltar. The tugboat Diavlos Force uses a steel cable to tow Hanseatic Inspiration's hull on a sailing lasting around 24-28 days, depending on the weather.
The 230-passenger Inspiration is being built for the German and international markets. The vessel is due to be launched in Antwerp Belgium on October 13, 2019. In a new expedition class of her own for Hapag-Lloyd, Hanseatic Inspiration will join Hanseatic Nature (in April 2019) and Hanseatic Spirit (in 2021).