''Sea Cloud II'' is a large

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

built as a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

, and operated by

Sea Cloud Cruises A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order sections ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, Germany.

Concept and construction

Due to the success of the operator's first ship, , but also for economic reasons, the operator decided to put another sailing ship into service. Unlike ''Sea Cloud'', ''Sea Cloud II'' is a newbuilding. The contract for her construction was awarded to the Spanish shipbuilder Astilleros Gondán, SA. The

keel laying Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a shipbuilding, ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel l ...

was held there on 24 June 1998. The

rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support and control a sailing ship or sail boat's masts and sails. ''Standing rigging'' is the fixed rigging that supports masts including shrouds and stays. ''Running rigg ...

was planned and produced by Navicom in Wolgast. The 23 sails were made in Poland. ''Sea Cloud II'' was launched on 18 March 1999. However, the owner's exacting demands in relation to interior fitout caused delivery problems and personnel problems. This led to a roughly one-year delay. The ship was eventually handed over to Sea Cloud Cruises on 29 December 2000, in a not yet completely finished state. On 22 January 2001, the final work was completed. ''Sea Cloud II'' was christened on 6 February 2001 in

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. The sponsor was

Sabine Christiansen Sabine Christiansen (born 20 September 1957) is a German journalist and television presenter. Career After finishing school in Preetz, Christiansen worked at Lufthansa from 1976 to 1982, then apprenticed in journalism at the Norddeutscher Ru ...

Description

''Sea Cloud II'' has an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of . Her maximum

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

is and her draught is described as . Her hull is built of standard shipbuilding steel, and is fitted with eight watertight bulkheads. Three of ''Sea Cloud II''s decks are continuous. She has a , and is equipped with three anchors, weighing a total of . The ship has five decks. The bridge deck is used as a sun deck behind the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. Below it is the main deck, which is called the

lido deck In British English, a lido ( , ) is a public outdoor swimming pool and surrounding facilities, or part of a beach where people can swim, lie in the sun, or participate in water sports. On a cruise ship or ocean liner, the lido deck feature ...

. It has a bar, lounge, the Owner Suites and the library. The

promenade deck The promenade deck is a deck found on several types of passenger ships and riverboats. It usually extends from bow to stern, on both sides, and includes areas open to the outside, resulting in a continuous outside walkway suitable for ''prome ...

, or first sub-deck, houses the reception area, restaurant, boutique, and the junior suites. Outside the windows of the suites is a promenade; no balconies are available. Externally, ''Sea Cloud II'' is recognizable by the long "cutouts" in her hull. The cabin deck is the second sub-deck. As its name suggests, it houses the cabins, but also a fitness room, sauna and a room for medical care. On the lowest deck are cabins for the crew members, along with the kitchen and other service facilities. A freight elevator connects the decks. There is no pool aboard ''Sea Cloud II''. Instead, she has a foldable platform, which facilitates sea-based watersports.

Cabins and suites

In the cabins and suites, a maximum of 96 passengers can be accommodated. The interior of ''Sea Cloud II'' is air conditioned, and in the cabins and suites, the temperature can be regulated. There are 27 outside cabins with portholes. By price category, the room sizes range from . They are always equipped with two beds, and a TV,

safe A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable enclosure used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body ...

, shower, toilet and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

vanity tops with gold-plated taps, amongst other features. In the three interior cabins, the lowest category, there are bunk beds. The 16 "junior suites" are in size, and are equipped with large windows. They also have more luxurious furnishings and interior decorations. The bathrooms are slightly larger than in the cabins and have a bath. The two so-called "owner suites" differ from the "junior suites" by having a room size of , more extensive furnishings (including a

four-poster bed __NOTOC__ A four-poster bed or tester bed is a Bed (furniture), bed with four vertical columns, one in each corner, that support a tester, or upper (usually rectangular) panel. This tester or panel will often have rails to allow curtains to be ...

) and a much larger bathroom with tub and separate shower.

Propulsion

''Sea Cloud II'' is a square-rigger with

foremast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the median line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, giving necessary height to a navigation light ...

mainmast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the median line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, giving necessary height to a navigation light ...

and

mizzenmast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the median line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sail A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or oth ...

. The top of her mainmast is above deck. Her 23 sails have a total area of approximately . She is sailed traditionally by hand, as is common, for example, on

sail training From its modern interpretations to its antecedents when maritime nations would send young naval officer candidates to sea (e.g., see Outward Bound), sail training provides an unconventional and effective way of building many useful skills on a ...

ships. The vessel's main power plants consist of two

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s made by Krupp MaK Maschinenbau GmbH, each developing at 900 revolutions per minute. The propeller is driven via a gear mechanism. Using this means of propulsion, ''Sea Cloud II'' achieves a top speed of about . Additionally, she is equipped with a

bow thruster Manoeuvering thrusters (bow thrusters and stern thrusters) are transversal propulsion devices built into or mounted to either the Bow (watercraft), bow or stern (front or back, respectively) of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow th ...

. Three main generators developing a total of generate the on-board voltage of 380/220 V AC, 50 Hz. There is also a emergency generator.

Service history

''Sea Cloud II'' sails mainly in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

in the Northern Hemisphere's summer months and in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

in winter months. Her Atlantic crossing between these two regions is marketed as a cruise in November. Comfort, service and cuisine are at the highest level on ''Sea Cloud II''. In 2004, the ''Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships'' therefore gave her a five star rating.

Gallery

File:SeaCloud2Martinique.jpg, ''Sea Cloud II'' anchored at

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

File:SeaCloud2NightMartinique.jpg, ''Sea Cloud II'' anchored at Martinique at night File:Sea Cloud II Pula (01).JPG, ''Sea Cloud II'' at

Pula Pula, also known as Pola, is the largest city in Istria County, west Croatia, and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, seventh-largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istria, Istrian peninsula in western Croatia, wi ...

, Croatia, 2011

References

External links

Official website of Sea Cloud Cruises, the operator of the ship

– review by Douglas Ward in ''The Daily Telegraph'', London.
"''Sea Cloud II'' – Ship Review"
– i
''Cruise Passenger''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sea Cloud 2 Ships built in Spain 1999 ships Barques Cruise ships of Germany