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Fincantieri's Marghera yard cuts steel for Seabourn Encore

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Steel-cutting ceremony - attended by figures including Seabourn president Rick Meadows, at center, and interior designer Adam D. Tihany, third from left
Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard held a steel-cutting ceremony Monday for Seabourn Encore that was led by Seabourn president Rick Meadows and Marghera director Antonio Quintano.

Also on hand was ship interior designer Adam D. Tihany and, in a nod to Seabourn's departing original fleet, two crew members, Egita Rasuma and Sergio Monteiro, from Seabourn Legend. This last of the three original Seabourn ships is currently on its final sailing before hand-over to Windstar Cruises.

Gabriele Coco, Fincantieri's senior evp merchant ships, welcomed the beginning of the builder's cooperation with Seabourn, while also acknowledging this as the latest event in a long line shared with the Carnival group.

Others present included Seabourn's Vitor Alves, newbuild project manager; Cyril Tatar, vp newbuild and technical operations; and Chris Prelog, vp hotel operations. Carnival Corporate Shipbuilding was represented by James Moore, project manager, and Ernesto Palmas, shipbuilding manager. Fincantieri's project manager for Seabourn Encore, Marco Lunardi, was there, too, along with Tihany Design's director of business development, Marnie Tihany.

Seabourn Encore is hospitality design Icon Adam Tihany's first solo cruise ship effort.

The ship is a larger version of the Odyssey-class trio that were delivered by T. Mariotti from 2009 to 2011.

Seabourn Encore has an extra deck and will be able to carry 604 passengers in all veranda-suite accommodations, up from 458 passengers on Seabourn Quest, Odyssey and Sojourn.

The new ship is 210 meters/689 feet long and 28 meters/92 feet at the beam, and will be able to reach a cruising speed of 18.6 knots. Fincantieri said Seabourn Encore will have elevated safety features and reduced fuel consumption thanks to optimized hydrodynamics.

The vessel is scheduled for delivery in late 2016, following by a sister, Seabourn Ovation, in 2018.

Fincantieri has built 59 vessels for Carnival Corp. & plc since 1990, with another seven newbuilds for the group currently in the orderbook.