Schulte Marine Concept Wins First Cruise Ship Newbuild Contract

Schulte Marine Concept the project management arm of maritime services company Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), working together with Bernhard Schulte Cruise Services (BS Cruise), will provide technical consultancy and newbuild supervision services to support construction of the oceangoing luxury expedition cruise ship, MS World Explorer.

MS World Explorer will be built as a 126-meter long expedition cruise ship with a passenger capacity of 200 and a crew complement of 111. The vessel will meet the latest Polar Code operating requirements and will be equipped with state-of-the-art hybrid power and propulsion technology, which will enable the ship to cruise in environmentally-sensitive areas.

Construction of MS World Explorer has commenced at the West Sea shipyard in Viana do Castello, in northern Portugal and she will start cruising during the winter season of 2018. 

The Mystic Group, led by Portuguese businessman Mario Ferreira, has already established a river cruise operation; DouroAzul, which is the largest luxury operator on the Douro River utilizing 16 vessels. Mystic also owns Nicko Cruises of Germany operating another 20 river vessels around the world, from the Danube, Rhine and Elbe to the Yangtze, Mekong and Nile. Both DouroAzul and Nicko will be expanded with new ships in 2018.

Ferreira anticipates at least another three vessels besides World Explorer to be delivered for the Mystic Group over the next four years.