Fireworks at the launch ceremony of Sun Stone's 'Greg Mortimer' polar vessel.

The polar vessel Greg Mortimer launched

The launching ceremony of the ‘Greg Mortimer’, the first polar expedition cruise vessel in SunStone Ships’ INFINITY series, was held in the morning of 12 March at the CMHI yard, China. The steel cutting ceremony of ship number three in the series was also arranged this morning.

  • Guests at the ceremony.
  • The 'Greg Mortimer' being prepared for launch.
  • Launch ceremony of the 'Greg Mortimer'.
  • Commercial Manager Lars Ståle Skoge, Ulstein, and Captain John Kafouros, SunStone Ships.
  • The guests attending the launch ceremony of the 'Greg Mortimer' cruise vessel.
  • Shipyard workers gathered around the 'Greg Mortimer'.

Les på norsk

The cruise operator, Aurora Expeditions, has chartered the vessel, and named her after their founder, Greg Mortimer, who also attended today's launch ceremony.
 

According to Xianpu Hu, managing director at China Merchants Industry Group, the construction of vessel number 1 started on 16 March 2018, less than one year ago. This has been achieved due to the great cooperation with the suppliers and service industry.

First-off in China

Niels Erik Lund, president of SunStone Ships, said that more than 1.8 million labour hours have been put into this ship. "This is the first time an expedition cruise ship has been built at a Chinese yard. The progress has been smooth and according to plan. I am convinced that we will see a safe delivery of this vessel later this year, for the vessel to commence operations in the Antarctic this winter season."

 

A series of vessels: Four contracts and 6 options

Ulstein's contract is with the CMHI yard. Four firm contracts have so far been signed, and six options. The INFINITY Class vessels are 104.4 m long and 18.4 m wide. They have a passenger capacity of 130-200, and a crew capacity of 85-115, and are built to the ice standard PC5, Cat B.

Steel cutting ceremony

This memorable day also included the steel cutting ceremony of the 'Ocean Victory'.

Get in touch

Lars Ståle Skoge DSC4468 comp bw

Lars Ståle Skoge

Description
Commercial Director
Affiliation
Ulstein Design & Solutions AS

Latest news

2025 Ganway connections
Feature

Mastering walk-to-work operations

The total number of walk-to-work (w2w) vessel designs and redesigns by Ulstein now count 22, of which 14 are currently in operation. In average, these vessels perform repair and maintenance on more than 5,000 turbines – every year! 
That makes a stunning 95,000+ gangway connections!

The heavy lift pipelay vessel, ‘JSD 6000’, is a customised ULSTEIN SOC5000 design. The 215m long DP3 vessel is equipped with a 5,000t revolving main crane and will be cable of performing J-lay and S-lay pipelay work in max water depths of 3,000m.. The combination of heavy lift and S-Lay capabilities together with J-Lay functionality via a large, off-centre moonpool, allows the vessel to serve deepwater and SURF markets as well as shallow-water EPCI projects.  The JSD 6000 vessel is the third cus
Press Release

Totally three Ulstein ship designs win Work Boat World Awards for 2024

Three of Ulstein's designs are among the Work Boat World Awards 2024 winners. Tamhae 3 clinched the 'Best Large Research Vessel' award, Olympic Boreas was named 'Best CSOV', and JSD 6000 took home the 'Best Derrick Layer' accolade from Baird Maritime/Work Boat World. These awards celebrate the best vessels in their categories, judged on design, build quality, and functionality.

Lars Ståle Skoge DSC4468 comp bw

Lars Ståle Skoge

Commercial Director

Affiliation
Ulstein Design & Solutions AS