Photos: Meyer Werft
B
efore being handed over to the
capable hands of the Germans,
the project already featured over a
year’s worth of research and development. It is clear that RCCL – which is
being forced to navigate some unsettling seas, just like the rest of the industry – knows that a lot is riding on
the success of this newbuild. As a double-dip recession is plaguing the economy, a break from the earlier “bigger
is better” strategy was considered to
be the appropriate move.
That is not to say that Sunshine
will be a small ship. The 158,000 Gross
Registered Tons (GRT) new build will
carry just over 4,100 guests based on
double occupancy.
Still, the Oasis sisters do trump
those numbers, and rather convincingly, at that – with 225,000 GRT
and 5,400 passengers each, there’s
no beating Oasis and Allure any time
soon.
MAKE IT A DOUBLE?
Scheduled for delivery in the fall of
2014, the Sunshine ship comes with
an option for a second ship – tentatively, for spring 2015. At the moment,
the construction of the second ship is
more than likely given the fact that
Finnish air conditioning systems company Koja Oy announced in November
2011 that Meyer Werft has placed an
order for the air conditioning systems
of two RCCL ships.
The biggest deal in the history
of the Finnish company, the contract
involves the basic and 3D designing
of both ship’s air AC systems, all AC
equipment as well as electricity and automation planning. Koja also reports
that the deal features an option for
the air conditioning of two other vessels of the same type – so RCCL might
eventually go for four Sunshine ships.
The Finns managed to land the
deal on the strength of their energyefficiency expertise. Both Meyer Werft and RCCL want to produce environmentally-conscious ships. For example,
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