Cruise News - Maritime News

Aurora Expeditions on 1. November, 2019 celebrated the christening of its innovative new ship, the Greg Mortimer, in a ceremony set against the snow-capped mountains of Ushuaia, Argentina.

Co-founder of Aurora Expeditions and Godmother to the ship Margaret Mortimer smashed a ceremonial piece of Antarctic ice against the world’s first passenger expedition ship featuring the Ulstein X-BOW

The ‘Greg Mortimer’s characteristic X-BOW design feature improves on-board comfort in head seas, as it helps to reduce slamming and resulting vibrations.

The vessel can thus keep up speed in adverse weather to get quickly through the harshest stretches of waters, typically the Drake Passage.

‘In big seas I kept waiting for the slamming – it never came’

Already on her first journey from the CMHI construction yard in China, the vessel came across very bad weather after leaving Cape Town heading for Ushuaia, Argentina. According to the Captain, the waves were 8-10 meters, with some waves reaching above deck 5, and strong winds. The vessel still kept high speed of 12-13 knots, with only 1 knot speed loss.

“It’s a totally different experience! In big seas, I kept waiting for the slamming, but it never came. You don’t feel the sea, you have to relearn how to interpret the vessel behavior. Other ships can only keep half the speed,” says Captain Ulf-Peter Lindstrøm. He has been working in international shipping for about 40 years, the last 20 years as Master.

The X-BOW feature was launched by Ulstein in 2005 and is implemented in more than 100 vessels worldwide, mostly offshore vessels. Ulstein has, for decades, been a specialist in the offshore segment before entering into offshore renewable vessels, car/passenger vessels and expedition cruise vessels.