The Scenic Eclipse II, ordered by the Australian Scenic group, is an ultra-luxury polar cruiser, 168 meters long and 21.5 meters wide, which can accommodate 228 guests. The appearance of this ship is familiar to the people of Rijeka, since it is the sister to the Scenic Eclipse, which was moored at Molo longa during the corona virus pandemic. The process of managing the construction of this research cruiser at “3.maj” is led by MKM Yachts, a division of Scenic Group.

It is the first launch of a ship at “3. maj”, after four years, and since it was open to the public, it attracted a significant number of citizens.

Before the ship’s launch, welcome speeches were given by Edi Kučan, director of the “3. maj” shipyard, Glen Moroney on behalf of Scenic Group, Davor Filipović, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development as well as by Vjera Marić, ship godmother. She was chosen as the ship godmother as a longtime employee of the “3. Maj” shipyard and the project manager of the construction of the “Eclipse II”, who symbolically launched the ship into the sea by cutting the champagne cord.

The launch of the ship was also attended by the deputy mayor of Rijeka, Goran Palčevski.

“This is a big and important day for all of us at Scenic. We are extremely proud that even in these challenging periods, we managed to realise our ideas. The Scenic Eclipse II represents an enhanced vision of our pioneering approach to the world of ultra-luxury cruising. We are grateful for the fact that we can build the most technologically advanced research passenger ships in the world and at the same time cooperate with shipyards with a long-standing proud tradition of shipbuilding. In Croatia, i.e., at “3. maj”, we found a suitable partner, and I would like to thank them for their cooperation, as well as all other stakeholders who recognized the seriousness of our intentions and the size of this project for Croatian shipbuilding on a global scale. I would like to thank HBOR, OTP Bank and all our subcontractors and partners for their support,” said Glen Moroney.

The interesting thing is that the Scenic Eclipse II was the first new construction after a long four-year break at “3. Maj”, and the specificity of this highly sophisticated expedition ship is also the model of contracted cooperation with the Rijeka shipyard, according to which MKM Yachts took part of “3. Maj” in a subconcession, and by using the existing infrastructure and expertise of domestic shipbuilders and in synergy with the Scenic team, is working on the realisation of a copy of the Scenic Eclipse.

The novelty of the MKM’s cooperation with “3. Maj” is also in the manner of operation, where the ship began to be equipped already at the slipway in order to be launched in the highest possible degree of completion. The workers of “3. maj” and subcontractors participated in the construction of the hull and its partial equipment, and MKM Yachts cooperated with numerous Croatian companies for procurement purposes. The Scenic Grupa further expanded its business operation in Rijeka last year by opening Scenic Cruise Services, company in charge of procurement and complete technical and hotel management of Scenic’s fleet of marine cruise ships. We are talking about jobs that until now were carried out from the office in Monaco, and since last year it has been done in Rijeka. Earlier, they founded a new shipping company, the Rijeka registry office, which for Scenic Eclipse was managed in Italy until now, and now the plan is to cooperate with other companies in the territory of Rijeka.