Meyer Turku floats out Mein Schiff 5 vessel
On Friday 15 January, Meyer Turku Shipyard floated out the first ship being contracted and built totally under the ownership of the Meyer family, the shipbuilding company said in a press release.
Mein Schiff 5 is a sister ship of Mein Schiff 4, which was handed over to its owner last spring. Building of Mein Schiff 5 has advanced as planned and on schedule. The float-out and transfer of the vessel from the dry dock to the outfitting pier marks a shift from the construction phase of the ship hull to the outfitting phase. Ferdinand Strohmeyer, Vice President Operations of TUI Cruises and Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku, were among the people participating in the opening of the dry dock valves.
"Step by step the good work of our team is coming together and the ship starts to look like a ship. Mein Schiff 4, the sister ship is well received by its guest – yet we cannot stand still and are implementing multiple improvements, big and small, on Mein Schiff 5 to further improve the guest experience. I'm confident that, once again, we will be able to deliver TUI Cruises a wonderful new cruise ship on time," said Jan Meyer.
TUI Cruises has also been satisfied with how the work has progressed and with its continued good cooperation with Meyer Turku.
"Although this is meanwhile TUI Cruises’ third new build, it is still a long way from becoming routine. It’s always a great feeling the first time we see the ship afloat,” said Ferdinand Strohmeier.
When completed, the technically highly advanced Mein Schiff 5 will be 295 metres long and 36 metres wide. Special attention in its design and construction was paid to energy efficiency. The cruise ship will have 1,267 cabins, of which approximately 90 per cent will be outer cabins and 82 per cent will have their own balcony. The ship will accommodate about 1,000 crew members. In accordance with the wishes of today's cruise passengers, Mein Schiff 5 will feature for example a high-quality theatre, outdoor pool area, extensive sports facilities, and a wide and varied range of restaurants. Mein Schiff 5 will be completed in the summer of 2016.
Meyer Turku specializes in building cruise ships, car-passenger ferries, technically demanding special vessels and offshore projects. Meyer Turku has 1,350 own employees. The shipyard area in Turku comprises 144 hectares and the size of the building dock, equipped with a 600-ton construction crane, is 365 x 80 metres. Meyer Turku's subsidiaries are Piikkio Works Oy, which is a Cabin Factory in Piikkiö, Shipbuilding Completion Oy, which provides turnkey solutions to public spaces in ships, and ENG´nD Oy, which is one of the leading shipbuilding and offshore engineering companies in Finland. The orderbook of Meyer Turku consists of three cruise ships for German TUI Cruises. Mein Schiff 4 will be delivered in spring 2015, Mein Schiff 5 in spring 2016 and Mein Schiff 6 in the spring 2017.