Croatia’s Brodosplit building second polar cruise ship for Oceanside Expeditions

Hondius (Photo: Brodosplit)

SPLIT, 20 January 2020 – Last year, Croatian shipyard Brodosplit handed over the polar cruise ship ‘Hondius’ to Oceanside Expeditions. 

Now the shipyard in the Dalmatian city of Split has begun construction of a second polar for the Dutch company. Brodosplit says completing the first polar cruise ship on time and being of high quality, resulted in another order. 

Just before Christmas, the processing of steel for the New Construction 485 begun on the limousine cutting machine took place at the Split shipyard.

(Photo: Brodosplit)

The new boat will be 107.6 meters long, 17.6 meters wide, and 15 knots will be provided by two main engines with a total power of 4260 kW. It will be able to accommodate 196 passengers housed in 85 cabins, which will be cared for by 70 crew members. They will offer their passengers a high standard of hotel as well as various categories of cabins, from spacious suites to double and quadruple cabins, where they will be able to stay safely and comfortably with multiple secured systems serving them.

(Photo: Brodosplit)

“Construction is expected to be completed for the 2021 Arctic season. We plan to hand it over even earlier,” said Tomislav Debeljak, CEO of Brodosplit.

“When we decided to build a ship like this, no shipyard in the Netherlands and Germany could give me a guarantee that the ship would be completed within the time limit we wanted. Because of this, we contacted the management of the Split shipyard, which accepted our construction deadlines and guaranteed that the ship would be completed on time. And they obeyed all that was agreed. It is not easy to build such a ship, but with the cooperation of our team of experts and experts from the Split shipyard, the ship was built within the agreed deadline. That’s why I decided that we would build another ship in Split,” Wijnand van Gessel, owner of Oceanwide Expeditions, noted at the handover of ‘Hondius’ in May.

(Photo: Brodosplit)

“This is proof that it can survive if sophisticated ships are built and something that others do not. We have shown that Croatian shipbuilding has the knowledge that has never been questioned, and we at DIV Group have proven that we can do positive business with our approach,” said Debeljak.

Zvonimir Novak, Assistant Minister of Economy and Rudjer Friganovic Director of Croatian Shipbuilding-Jadranbrod and numerous representatives of guides and partners in the city were present at the steel cutting ceremony.

About Oceanwide Expeditions®:

Oceanwide Expeditions is a Dutch company specializing in expeditionary trips to the Antarctic and Arctic. Developing its own fleet of vessels adapted to the icy seas, Oceanwide promotes small, flexible tours that give travelers close contact with polar wildlife, landscapes and historic sites. These tours usually take place in areas accessible only by sea, with little or no infrastructure. The locations are first reached by boat, after which the expedition guides guide small groups of passengers to the final destinations of the Zodiac Milpro RIBs (rigid dinghy), thus ensuring safe navigation and longer stay on land.