THE Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection continues to maintain that its inaugural voyage will depart on 14 Jun 2020, despite reports in Spanish media that the line’s first vessel, Evrima, is likely to take up to nine more months to be completed. A restructuring plan for the Barreras shipyard in Vigo, where...
THE Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection continues to maintain that its inaugural voyage will depart on 14 Jun 2020, despite reports in Spanish media that the line’s first vessel, Evrima, is likely to take up to nine more months to be completed.
A restructuring plan for the Barreras shipyard in Vigo, where the ship is under construction, was approved last week, meaning works are likely to resume shortly.
The project ground to a halt in late Sep 2019, after the shipyard was placed in bankruptcy protection amid a significant cost blowout for the Ritz-Carlton ship.
The court-approved plan allows for payments to be made to critical subcontractors who had ceased work on Evrima.
A number of Cruise Weekly readers who have clients booked on Evrima’s maiden season have raised concerns in recent days about a lack of updates on the progress of the ship.
The proposed Jun date “will not be possible,” reports state, and was already four months later than originally planned, with Ritz-Carlton last year cancelling cruises departing from Feb 2020.
A report in Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia says subcontractors will recommence work as soon as they receive an initial 50% payment of monies outstanding, and that after that Evrima “can be delivered in about seven to nine months”.
However a spokesperson for Ritz-Carlton overnight assured CW “the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection will be launching 14 Jun 2020”.
The vessel is pictured in the Spanish shipyard on 10 Feb 2020 – photo courtesy Javier Alonso Castro/skipsfarts-forum.net.
