Velarca, which recently launched the 32-guest, 100-meter-long Velarca Explorer newbuild concept in response to the shifting expedition market, is working towards transforming ideas into what it describes as fully realized vessel concepts.

Sami Lehtonen, founder and CEO of Isola Corvus (the Finnish company behind the Velarca brand), told Cruise Industry News in an interview that the logic behind the latest concept is to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

“That was the driver in starting this company, and we wanted to extend this same business idea, same logic, into a much larger deal,” he added. “The concept would need to be able to cruise around the world without causing damage to the environment.”

While stricter environmental regulations played a significant role in shaping the concept, Lehtonen highlighted that Velarca also wanted the ship to be much prettier than competitor ships.

“It has to be second to none, really — (even) how the ship looks inside once we get the interior design finished,” he noted.

Unique offering

Lehtonen pointed out that furthermore, the newbuild concept aims to provide guests with a more direct relationship with the sea.

“We designed this ship to be suitable for cold climate cruising; we have lots of windows and domes on top where you can sit inside and see everything that’s around you,” he explained.

While the company still needs to decide what amenities to place onboard, Lehtonen assured that guests can expect good food, good drinks and lots of activities.

In terms of marketing, the company is trying to do something that it believes does not yet exist.

“We are trying to create a ship brand. There’s no ‘Mercedes of ships’ or anything like that.  The brands are more like cruise companies or travel agent brands, but they don’t talk about a ship brand,” he explained.

“We are trying to achieve a brand that will be valuable for the travel agents and shipyards that they could use in their own market and see if it happens.”

Velarca

“As a young lad, I was fascinated by all kinds of boats, and I decided to pursue a career in the boat sector. I studied boatbuilding and did my naval architecture engineering degree. I then ended up doing something completely different for a couple of decades. Coming back to the yachting industry for me is quite exciting, fun, awesome,” said Lehtonen.

According to the CEO, Isola Corvus company wanted to make a strategic move by expanding into the cruise market because the superyacht sector is unpredictable, and business forecasts are difficult to make.

The Velarca business model? “Our role is simply to do sales and marketing and manage the brand. I think it’s very good to perhaps indicate the dependency of various partners, too,” Lehtonen said.

“We can simply or more easily choose whatever we want to do and base our decisions on market changes alone.  I think that’s one of our great advantages … I see us being a trendsetter.”

“Our company is very young and small, but we are already among the most innovative companies. People are noticing us because we are not afraid to introduce something completely different,” he added.

Next Steps

“We’ve had talks with a couple of shipyards, but it’s a little bit premature to make deals; we need to do a couple of design rounds first, which includes interior and technical areas. We expect to be ready to make a deal with a shipyard within a year. And after that, it remains to be seen,” Lehtonen explained.

The company is now focusing on finalizing the design and building network partners, but the future is more than bright.

According to Lehtonen, travelers are getting younger, and the customer segment is broadening, bringing in different ideas about the environment. This is affecting how the company is advancing the concept.

He also revealed that talks with travel agencies and expedition cruise companies have shown that demand far exceeds supply.

“There simply aren’t enough suitable ships available,” he added.