Vard has won a contract to design and build a new expedition cruise vessel for Australia-based company Coral Expeditions.
The vessel has been designed by Vard Design in collaboration with Coral Expeditions, and will be built to carry out small ship expedition cruises to remote destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.
The ship features a VARD 6 01 design and will measure 93.5m in length and 17.2m in width.
It will be able to accommodate 120 passengers and is set to be deployed to conduct daily shore expeditions, lectures and briefings.
The vessel is expected to be delivered by the first quarter of 2019 from Vard Vung Tau yard in Vietnam.
Vard CEO and executive director Roy Reite said: “Vard’s highly experienced shipbuilders and our specialised subsidiaries in Norway and abroad look forward to working together with Coral’s team.”
Coral Expeditions currently operates a fleet of three Australian-flagged ships, including two ocean-going catamarans named Coral Expeditions I and Coral Expeditions II, as well as a 63m vessel known as Coral Discoverer.
The company mainly offers expedition cruises to the Great Barrier Reef, Kimberley region, Cape York and Arnhem Land in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, in addition to a number of islands located in the South Pacific, Tasmania, and South East Asia.
Norway-based Vard currently employs around 9,000 people and operates nine shipbuilding facilities, including five in Norway, two in Romania, one in Brazil and one in Vietnam.
Image: Rendering of Coral Expeditions’ new cruise vessel. Photo: courtesy of Vard.
