Hurtigruten Group has introduced the non permanent reassignment of MS Maud again to the corporate’s Coastal Specific service. The transfer coincides with the cancellation of cruises and a significant improve to the Hurtigruten fleet.
Hurtigruten, with a historical past spanning over 130 years, operates ferries and coastal cruise ships below the Hurtigruten Model. It additionally operates expedition cruise ships by means of its lately rebranded expedition section, HX.
Strategic Fleet Reshuffle Amongst Hurtigruten Manufacturers
Hurtigruten Group, guardian firm of Hurtigruten Coastal Specific and HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions) has revealed that MS Maud shall be briefly transferred again to its Coastal Specific service below the Norwegian state contract.
This adjustment is an element of a bigger plan by the corporate to improve environmental options onboard the Hurtigruten ships, leaving a void that shall be crammed by MS Maud. The vessel isn’t any stranger to the Norwegian coast, beforehand serving right here till 2021 when she was built-in into the HX fleet to assist the corporate’s formidable targets in expedition cruising.
“Hurtigruten is enterprise essentially the most vital environmental improve within the cruise trade. The varied fleet capabilities of the Hurtigruten Group give us the chance to briefly transfer MS Maud from HX to Hurtigruten, filling the void left by the improve program,” defined Daniel Skjeldam, CEO of Hurtigruten Group.
MS Maud shall be crusing in Norwegian waters till 2026, after which she shall be returning to HX to renew her expedition cruises.
West Africa Cruises Cancelled
That Hurtigruten is ready to deliver MS Maud again to the Coastal service is because of the cancellation of operations in West Africa amongst growing regional instability. Company who have been booked onboard cruises to West Africa onboard MS Maud have been supplied a full refund or a 125% future cruise credit score.
Company booked on Antarctic cruises aboard MS Maud within the winter 2024/2025 season shall be mechanically transferred to sailings on hybrid ships like MS Fridtjof Nansen, MS Fram, or MS Roald Amundsen.
MS Maud is scheduled to renew crusing in mid-April 2024 with British Isles itineraries, earlier than venturing into the Arctic for the summer season season. The cruise ship was within the information earlier this 12 months when a rogue wave struck the vessel on Thursday, December 21, 2023, whereas crusing within the North Sea between Norway, Denmark, and the UK.
The ship momentarily misplaced energy and the flexibility to navigate after a wave shattered a number of home windows on the bridge, leaving it briefly adrift.
Hurtigruten Adjusting Focus
Hurtigruten Group is presently underway with a complete environmental improve, focusing on a big discount in its fleet’s carbon footprint for its seven Norwegian Coastal Specific service ships.
The initiative goals to cut back CO2 and NOx emissions by means of fashionable applied sciences, sustainable biofuels, and different inexperienced developments. It’s among the many most in depth environmental efforts in European maritime historical past and can take roughly seven years, with the primary ship being transformed again in 2019.
Hurtigruten additionally plans to retrofit as much as 9 expedition ships with hybrid propulsion, putting in LNG engines and battery packs, in collaboration with Rolls-Royce Marine. This strategic push in direction of extra eco-friendly operations has the last word objective of deploying a zero-emission ship by 2030.
