In 2018, it all began when Havila Kystruten was awarded with the new contracts to operate 4 new passenger ships in the historical postal route in the beautiful Norwegian fjords. The first two vessels; Havila Capella and Havila Castor were contracted with Tersan Shipyard while the other two; Havila Polaris and Havila Pollux, were ordered at another shipyard in Europe. The design of projects was a prototype and especially developed in order serve its visitors with a modern, environmental friendly and Norwegian feeling style and to provide them a very comfortable stay onboard. Despite the technical challenges as one could expect from a prototype design of such a complicated passenger vessel and considering the spotlights on these ships, both Havila and Tersan cooperated very well and professionally worked together and overcomed both the technical and commercial challenges. While the third and fourth vessels unfortunately didn’t go as well as expected and somehow failed, Havila Kystruten was very confident to order the third and fourth vessels also to Tersan Shipyard a year after their predecessors.

A considerable period of the construction of the vessels had to continue during the very hard times of Covid Pandemic with quarantines, delays in equipment deliveries and lack of human resources due to the strict Covid regulations.

Beside these challenges, the vessels’ financing was also hit due the sanctions imposed to Havila’s Russian origin finance provider as results of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Tersan Shipyard was always a part of the solution, adopting responsibility, identifying its own role and prepared to work constructively to find a solution. Thanks to the solution-oriented efforts of each and every stakeholder in the yard, from the steel worker to the top management, now Tersan has reached the big milestones to deliver the third and fourth vessels successfully.

"We want to thank Tersan Shipyard for their excellent cooperation and great understanding of our challenges over the last few years. They have built four fantastic ships, and without them, as well as other suppliers and partners, we would not be standing here today," says Bent Martini, CEO of Havila Kystruten.

Designed by HAV Ship Design and built under supervision of DNV; the new Havila Passenger vessels Havila Pollux and Havila Polaris will operate in Norway’s Bergen - Kirkenes historical coastal route like their sister ships. With a combination of the 86 -ton battery packs and liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the vessels; each vessel reduces CO2 emissions by up to 35% and local emissions (NOx and SOx) by 90% compared to the ones running on traditional fossil fuels. Providing high energy efficiency and complying with the low emission requirements of Norway, each vessel has 6100 kWh battery capacity allowing them to operate emission-free for up to 4 hours. Beside the green energy solutions on the vessel, high interior standards have been applied with distinctive and well-designed accommodation areas aiming to bring the best comforts to the passengers on their Bergen – Kirkenes historical route.

"It is a fantastic day for us celebrating the deliveries of the beautiful coastal passenger ships to Havila Kystruten. Despite challenges for both us and Havila Kystruten during the construction process of these impressive ships, we are very happy today to have delivered four marvelous ships to Havila Kystruten. These are the most modern and environmentally friendly ships on the Norwegian coastal route, and we are proud that these four sister ships carry the name of Tersan Shipyard along the beautiful Norwegian coast. We also thank Havila Kystruten and its cooperative representatives for their support and efforts who made these deliveries possible, it has been pleasure working with them." says Osman Nurettin Paksu, Chairman of the Board of Tersan Shipyard

Maritime Business World