Costa’s New Flagship Postponed at Meyer Turku

Costa Smeralda during its flout out. Photo courtesy Meyer Turku

Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku is postponing delivery of Costa Cruise’s new flagship vessel, the LNG-powered Costa Smeralda, by one month, the shipbuilder said in a statement. 

Meyer Turku attributes the delay to difficulties with the ship’s LNG propulsion and other sophisticated technologies onboard, combined with its large size.

Under the new timeline, Meyer Turku will move delivery of Costa Smeralda from mid-October to mid-November.

The 180,000 gross tons Costa Smeralda was one of four LNG-powered ships ordered by Costa Cruises’ parent Carnival Corp. back in June 2015 at Meyer Turku and Germany’s Meyer Werft.

Costa Smeralda will be the second to de delivered out of a total 11 new ships now set to join Carnival Corporation’s fleet between 2018 and 2025 that can be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“With its new cruise ship LNG propulsion system and many sophisticated rooms with stage and audio/video equipment the complexity and sophistication of the ship is very high in order to create a unique Costa-style passenger experience,” Meyer Turku said in a statement. “Aside from its unique design features also its size of 180 000 GT is impressive and much larger than the recently built ships at Turku shipyard.

“In getting this all to work together with many involved persons and companies, Meyer Turku had a slower progress speed than needed, despite counter-actions. Meyer Turku apologizes to all that are affected by this change,” the company added.

A sister ship to Costa Smeralda is due in 2021.

Costa Smeralda in numbers:

• Classification: RINA
• Flag: Italian
• Length overall (approx.): 337 m
• Beam moulded: 42 m
• Draught max (approx.): 8.80 m
• Gross Tonnage: 182,700
• Total passenger cabins: 2,612
• Total lower berths: 5,224
• Total passengers (approx.): 6,518
• Balcony cabin ratio: 63.7%
• Total crew (max): 1,682
• Speed (service): 17 kn
• No. of main engines: 4

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