Explora I is the “safest ship at sea” according to Explora Journeys’ chief executive, due to additional testing which was carried out after the vessel’s launch was delayed as materials did not meet the required safety certifications.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, Michael Ungerer highlighted the “amazing” work that was completed on the ship in the weeks before its first sailing, which was pushed back from July 17 to August 1.
“This is probably the safest ship at sea,” he said. “What we went through before the original delivery and in the couple of weeks extra that we had to take to rectify the issues was amazing.
“The certification had expired of a certain material so we had to change that material, we had to double up in certain areas and we had to test again.
“We got the authorities in, we got the certifications done, we had the coastguard here and got the green light from them so it’s all good. We worked day and night to do that.
“All that was done literally in two and a half weeks which is absolutely amazing because we wanted to save the [maiden] journey from Copenhagen. It was quite exciting.”
He added: “I apologise again to everybody who got affected because it’s unheard of rescheduling everything on such a short notice.”
Explora II is being built in Italy and will come into service in August 2024. Explora III will become the first of two vessels to join the fleet to be powered by LNG (liquefied natural gas), with the ship due to be delivered in 2026, followed by Explora IV in 2027.
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