Damen’s SeaXplorer concept offers customers a successful adventure yacht and is the inspiration for the yard’s expedition cruise ship concept.

“We have tried to harmonize the lines in symphony with our successful adventure yacht SeaXplorer in order to give it a Damen look and feel,” said Andrea Trevisan, senior vice president of sales and marketing for cruise at Damen Shipyards Group.

“We have also given a soul to the interiors ensuring a holistic experience throughout the vessel. It is an ultimate state-of-the-art expedition cruise vessel as well as an all-around cruise destination ship. It is a concept which shows the Damen Cruise flavor; just the start of our journey in the cruise newbuilding business,” she added.

Building for polar areas, Damen takes Polar Code and Polar Class requirements into consideration, said Trevisan.

“Also, onboard functionalities are different from other cruise ships, for example because of the requirement for safe embarking and disembarking of passengers at sea in small boats and/or submarines and helicopters,” she said.

The concept can be modified for the customer’s operational profile – more storage for longer sailing periods, and the ability to run on clean fuels if necessary.

“Expedition equipment, like boats and helicopters also takes storage space and moreover you also have to be able to launch and recover this at sea, requiring additional facilities to do that safely,” Trevisan continued.

With the expedition market booming, Trevisan painted a competitive picture for potential newbuild orders with multiple yards vying for contracts.

“Damen is a solid group of more than 30 newbuild and repair yards and service hubs worldwide, with excellent facilities. We have over 10,000 employees and are experienced in complex projects. We are a proud family company that places great value in the development of relationships in business, while, at the same time, we have the solid structure of a large multi-national group. Additionally, we are able to propose attractive financing solutions via our dedicated customer finance team and well rated financial institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.”