Meyer Turku starts the hull assembly for Costa Smeralda
The coin ceremony at Meyer Turku shipyard held on 4 July 2018 marked the beginning of the hull assembly for new Costa Cruises ship Smeralda. According to the shipyard, the vessel will be a beauty with many design features – inspired by an Italian piazza, there will be, for example, a wide open staircase at the stern of the ship. The ship has been designed to offer its passengers quality, style, warm hospitality, entertainment and of course world famous gastronomy in several restaurants – all in a fresh Costa style.
The ceremony is also a historical moment at Meyer Turku – Costa Smeralda being a 180 000 gross tonnage (GT) cruise ship the shipyard is now building the largest ship in ten years.
“We are on the midpoint of our current ramp up project with the new crane and several other investments already in place and almost 700 new shipbuilders compared to 2014 when we came to Turku”, says CEO of Meyer Turku Jan Meyer.
Costa Smeralda is part of an important effort of Costa’s mother company, Carnival Corp, to bring the world’s first LNG powered cruise ships into operation. Meyer Turku has been a pioneer in LNG ship building with already two very successful LNG ferries delivered (Viking Grace in 2014 and Tallink Megastar in 2017). Now Meyer Turku has worked together with sister shipyard Meyer Werft, Papenburg to create the LNG propulsion plant for the Costa Smeralda.
For shipbuilders the start of hull assembly with traditional coin ceremony is a very exciting event. After this the ship will start to take form in the dry dock of Meyer Turku.
“We are particularly excited to be celebrating this symbolic moment for our new ship. Costa Smeralda represents a real innovation for the international market and an important step toward setting new standards for the entire sector”, says Michael Thamm, CEO of the Costa Group and Carnival Asia.
At the coin ceremony there was already a large part of the ship lying at the dry dock as a 140 meter long floating engine room unit (FERU) was towed to Turku earlier last week from Meyer’s Neptun Werft, Germany.
“The floating engine room unit is part of our group strategy where we try to find synergies between the three shipyards. Building these at Neptun Werft also eases the ramp up of Meyer Turku and is a showcase of the good collaboration we have among our shipyards”, Jan Meyer reveals.
Costa Smeralda will start operation in October 2019. With 180 000 gross tonnages she will have 2600 cabins. The first planned cruise will start from Hamburg and the ship will from there sail via Hamburg, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Barcelona and Marseilles to Savona, Italy, where a naming ceremony will be held. Costa Smeralda will then continue to sail around the Western Mediterranean until April 2020. A sister ship to Costa Smeralda will be delivered from Turku in 2021.
