The Viking Octantis, the first of Fincantieri’s two expedition vessels for Viking, has been delivered in Søviknes, Norway.
The Viking Octantis – as well as her sister ship Viking Polaris, which is to be delivered next year – can host 378 guests in 189 staterooms. The ships have the Polar Class 6 certification for expeditions in the polar regions, and they have the size to navigate remote areas and the St. Lawrence River and provide superior handling and stability in rough seas. Straight bows, longer hulls, and fin stabilizers will allow the ships to glide over the waves for “the calmest possible journey,” Fincantieri said. Ice-strengthened hulls will provide “the safest way to explore” and u-tank stabilizers will “significantly decrease rolling by up to 50 percent” when the ships are stationary.
Designed by the same nautical architects and engineers that designed Viking’s ocean ships, these new vessels feature modern Scandinavian design, intimate spaces and attention to detail, as well as public spaces that are favorites on Viking’s ocean ships and new spaces created specifically for expeditions.
“This result reaffirms our ability to perform very well all over the world even in a situation as complex as the current one. Suffice it to say that “Viking Octantis” is the ninth cruise unit completed in 2021 in our domestic and foreign sites, without forgetting the deliveries for the US Navy, 2 this year, in the American shipyards. Fincantieri is a Group with a global vocation, which consolidates the leadership positions it has acquired and imposes its own successful production model on four continents,” the CEO of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, said.
Fincantieri started its partnership with Viking in 2012 when the cruise line was just entering the ocean cruise market. Today, the cooperation which first began with an order for two ships, has reached a total of 20 units, including the Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris and the options.
“This is an all-time record, the largest number of units ordered to a shipbuilder by one sole shipowner,” Fincantieri said.
Other nine units, options included, will take to the sea from the group’s Italian yards in the next years.
