| IMO | 9156474 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 30,277 GT |
| Length | 181 m |
| Beam | 25.46 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 684 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 824 |
| Crew | 386 |
| Service speed | 18 knots |
| Builder | Chantiers de l'Atlantique |
| Hull number | I31 |
| Launched | 2003 |
| Maiden voyage | 1998 |
| Class | R-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Oceania Cruises |
| Status | Active |
| All names | Regatta; Insignia ; built as R Two |
Overview
Regatta is a small, premium cruise ship operated by Oceania Cruises — but she was not built for Oceania, or under this name. She was delivered in 1998 to Renaissance Cruises as R Two, the second of eight near-identical R-class ships, and she reached Oceania only after Renaissance's collapse in 2001, sailing briefly as Insignia before becoming Regatta in 2003. Three names in her first five years, then stability: she has been Regatta, and an Oceania ship, ever since, and she gave her name to Oceania's Regatta class.
Her story is the R-class story in miniature. Renaissance built an excellent series of 30,277 GT ships for destination-focused, upmarket cruising, failed as a company, and left a fleet of nearly new ships to be redistributed among new operators — of which Oceania Cruises, founded in 2002 by executives from Renaissance itself, became the most direct heir. The dataset's apparently odd pairing of dates — maiden voyage 1998, launched 2003 — is a fossil of that history, and is explained below.
Key specifications
The dataset records Regatta at 30,277 GT and 180.0 m long, built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique as hull number I31, with a maiden voyage in 1998. Her Wikipedia article gives fuller figures for the type: 30,277 GT, 180.96 m in length, a beam of 25.46 m, nine passenger-accessible decks, four Wärtsilä 12V32 engines totalling 13,500 kW driving two propellers, a speed of 18 knots, capacity of 684 passengers in lower berths and 824 in all berths, and a crew of 386. Those proportions — roughly 684 guests on a 30,000-ton ship — are the specification that matters: the R class was deliberately small and spacious at a moment when the mainstream industry was building ever larger and denser.
Design and construction
Renaissance Cruises had begun operations in 1989 with a series of small luxury cruise ships, and in the mid-1990s it placed an order with Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, France, for eight identical vessels of 30,277 GT. The first, R One, was delivered in June 1998; R Two — this ship — followed in November 1998. The design brief was destination cruising rather than resort cruising: ships small enough for smaller ports and longer, port-rich itineraries, with a high proportion of balcony cabins for their era, several restaurants and lounges, and interiors in a deliberately traditional idiom.
The dataset gives her launched year as 2003. Her hull number at Saint-Nazaire, I31, belongs to the 1998 delivery. In short: the steel, the launch and the first service are all 1998; 2003 is a renaming, not a birth.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
She entered the world with the least romantic name in cruising: R Two, second in a numbered series, R One through R Eight. Renaissance's numbering had a certain logic — the ships were a matched set, marketed as a fleet — and it has had a long afterlife, because every account of these ships still identifies them by their R numbers. Her maiden voyage, per the dataset, was in 1998, and her Wikipedia article records that after delivery in November 1998 she was placed on cruise traffic in the Mediterranean.
The later names tell the Oceania story. Renamed Insignia in October 2002 for the new Oceania Cruises, she was renamed again on 15 June 2003 as Regatta, because the name Insignia had in the meantime been given to her sister R One, which Oceania had also chartered. Regatta — a sailing race — suited the new line's nautical, traditional branding, and it stuck: she became the name ship of Oceania's Regatta class.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 1998–2001 | R Two | Renaissance Cruises |
| 2001–2002 | R Two | Laid up (Gibraltar, then Marseille) under Cruiseinvest ownership |
| 2002–2003 | Insignia | Oceania Cruises (with a charter to TMR, April–June 2003, marketed as Vaisseau Renaissance) |
| 2003–present | Regatta | Oceania Cruises |
The turning point was the collapse of Renaissance Cruises, which went bankrupt on 25 September 2001 in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks. On 7 October 2001 R Two was arrested in Gibraltar and laid up with six of her sisters; in December 2001 the former Renaissance ships there were sold to Cruiseinvest and moved to Marseille for further lay-up. Her rescue came from familiar hands: Oceania Cruises had been founded by Frank Del Rio, a former vice-president of Renaissance, and Joe Watters, a former chief executive of Crystal Cruises. In October 2002 the ship was renamed Insignia, given a refit reported at $10 million, and chartered to Oceania; after the brief TMR charter in the spring of 2003 she returned to Oceania on 15 June 2003 under her present name, Regatta. The dataset records only Oceania Cruises in her operator history — true of her long second career, but only half of her biography, as the table shows.
Onboard character
The R class's character was traditional luxury at small scale. Descriptions of the ships emphasise interiors referring to the grand ocean liners of the 1920s and 1930s — grand staircases, dark wood panelling, brass and classical detailing — set in a modern, luxurious environment. It was a self-conscious reaction against the neon resort ship: these were vessels meant to feel like small classic liners that happened to have balcony cabins, several alternative dining venues and contemporary machinery.
Major refits and incidents
The refit that defines her is the conversion of 2002, when the laid-up R Two was taken up by Oceania, renamed Insignia and given a refit reported at $10 million to prepare her for the new line — a substantial sum for a ship barely four years old, reflecting a change of brand and market rather than any defect. A further renaming and return to Oceania service followed in June 2003. Her later Oceania career has followed the normal pattern of periodic drydock refurbishments for ships of her class; her Regatta-class entry records her as last refurbished in 2011 in one fleet table.
No major casualty is recorded for her in the sources used for this guide. The dramatic event of her life was commercial, not marine: the bankruptcy of her original operator, her arrest at Gibraltar in October 2001 and her lay-up there and at Marseille — an episode she shared with almost the whole of her class.
Sister ships and class
Regatta was built as one of eight Renaissance R-class ships, R One to R Eight, delivered from Chantiers de l'Atlantique between 1998 and 2001. Within Oceania, the Regatta class comprises four of them: Regatta herself (ex-R Two), Insignia (ex-R One), Nautica (ex-R Five, joining Oceania in 2005) and Sirena (ex-R Four, which had also sailed as Tahitian Princess and Ocean Princess, joining Oceania in 2016). The remaining R-class ships found their second careers principally with Azamara, making the eight-ship Renaissance order the foundation of two separate premium cruise brands — a remarkable afterlife for a fleet orphaned after barely three years.
Fate and where she is now
The dataset lists her fate as "Operating. Formerly: Insignia; built as R Two," her status as active, and her operator as Oceania Cruises. That remains the position for the purposes of this guide: a ship built in 1998 for a company that failed in 2001, still in service under the name she took in 2003, as the name ship of the class with which her operator built its identity.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Regatta, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regatta-class_cruise_ship