Concordia Damen is proud to announce their new contract with an undisclosed Swiss luxury river cruise operator to deliver its cutting-edge River Cruise 135. This in-house designed vessel represents a step forward in sustainable and luxurious river cruising and has the Green Award Gold Standard.

The new ship will have hybrid propulsion for reduced fuel consumption and lower emissions, high insulation, laser-controlled ventilation, and environmentally friendly materials are used for the outfitting, to name but a few features.

Given its luxury interior – again, designed with sustainable shipbuilding practices in mind – and the yard’s focus on integrating advanced technologies, Concordia Damen aims to meet the highest standards of performance and passenger satisfaction and align itself with the growing demand for eco-friendly river cruising solutions.

That’s also one of the reasons why the shipyard has decided to build these vessels on stock, the next one already in the early stage of being built. After the hull is completed, the cruiser can of course be adapted in many ways to suit individual customer’s needs and wishes.

Johan Muilenburg, Project Manager at Concordia Damen, comments: “We are excited to partner with this leading Swiss operator to deliver our innovative River Cruise 135. This contract underscores our commitment to eco-friendly practices and excellence in shipbuilding; and these are not just words! Cruise vessel owners and operators are welcome to visit our yard and see for themselves what this statement means in practice. One of the features I personally like best is the fact that we’ve integrated solar panels in the railing, which are instrumental in charging the battery system. Another one is that we’ve proven that this design needs significantly less power to sail under normal circumstances – a real fuel- and cost saver. We are thankful to our client and very happy with this contract. After the A-Rosa Sena, this new ‘135’ proves that Concordia Damen is really establishing itself in the River cruise market, the sustainable cruise market, to be precise.”

Key Features of the River Cruise 135:

• Hybrid Propulsion System: the new River Cruise 135 is being outfitted with diesel-electric propulsion with smart peak shaving, a system being delivered by the yard’s long-time partner and system integrator Oechies, and combining diesel-electric and battery technology for optimal efficiency and minimal environmental impact
• Sustainable Design: the vessel is built to the Green Award Gold Standard, featuring high insulation, laser-controlled ventilation, and the use of environmentally friendly materials
• Low Draft: designed to (longer) navigate shallow waters, enabling extended operations during low-water seasons and ensuring consistent cruising schedules
• Advanced Technology: Triton, the award-winning IoT solution from Damen for data-driven efficiency, remote monitoring, and predictive maintenance, adds extra operational reliability and reduced fuel consumption to the CDS 135
• Luxurious Amenities: spacious cabins, energy-friendly HVAC systems, customizable interiors, and dedicated crew areas ensure a comfortable and enjoyable experience for both guests and crew. For the latter, there’s even a separate aft deck, incl. a mess room adjacent to the open deck.
• Heat-recovery Systems: the cruise ship has one system running on the engine’s cooling water and serves the central heating system, and a second heat recovery system integrated with the HVAC system, that sprouts a modular-built chiller plant and an energy saving cooling system.