The new ultra-luxury cruise line brand - The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, on Friday announced it had pushed back the launch of its much-awaited first ship - Evrima, for the 8th time.
The company blamed "ongoing global supply chain challenges" and a delay in receiving “certain compulsory materials” necessary for the final stage of finishing the vessel.
The vessel's construction is being finished at the Astander Shipyard in El Astillero (near Santander, Spain Cantabria).
According to the statement, Ritz-Carlton is rescheduling Evrima’s debut for October 15, or ~7 weeks later than it was targeting after the 7th delay to the yacht was announced a couple of months ago.
Disruptions caused by supply chain issues are the latest excuse the new travel brand has offered for the repeated delays to the unveiling of Evrima that have stretched well into a 3rd year.
The newbuild Evrima was originally scheduled for inauguration in February 2020. But what the company described as problems at Hijos de J. Barreras Shipyard in Vigo Spain (where the boat's construction was started) led to two significant delays in 2020 that pushed back the schedule by 14 months.
4 more delays were announced in 2021 and early 2022 (due to the ongoing COVID crisis) pushing back the debut by another 16 months. The 7th delay was in June 2022, blamed on a metalworkers’ strike in Spain's Cantabria region where the Astander Shipyard is based. According to Ritz-Carlton, the strike had interrupted the ship's construction process, even though shipyard workers had not been among those striking.
With the latest delay, Evrima's arrival is ~33 months behind schedule.
Assuming that Ritz-Carlton Evrima finally debuts on October 15, she will begin service with a 7-night voyage from Barcelona (Spain) to Civitavecchia-Rome (Italy), which will include calls at Port Mahon, Port d’Alcudia (Majorca), and Ibiza in Spain’s Balearic islands.