| IMO | 9731171 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 40,350 GT |
| Length | 210.0 m |
| Beam | 27.99 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 635 |
| Service speed | 18.6 knots |
| Builder | Fincantieri |
| Hull number | 6251 |
| Launched | 2016 |
| Maiden voyage | 2017-01-07 |
| Operator | Seabourn Cruise Line |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Seabourn Encore is an ultra-luxury cruise ship built by Fincantieri for Seabourn Cruise Line and delivered on 30 November 2016. She was the first of a new, enlarged generation for Seabourn — about 26 per cent larger than the line's three Odyssey-class ships, with one additional deck and about 34 per cent more passenger capacity on a double-occupancy basis — and the first Seabourn ship built by Fincantieri, ending the line's association with the Mariotti yard that had produced the Odyssey class. Her arrival restored the berth capacity Seabourn had given up when its three original small ships — Seabourn Pride, Spirit and Legend — were sold to Windstar Cruises. She was christened in Singapore on 7 January 2017 by the soprano Sarah Brightman, and remains in active service.
A note on her tonnage: the dataset carries 40,350 GT, the design figure quoted throughout her launch coverage. Her measured gross tonnage as recorded in her own article and in the New Zealand accident investigation is 41,865 GT; the difference is logged with this guide, and the researched figure should be preferred for the ship as measured.
Key specifications
As researched, Seabourn Encore measures 41,865 GT (dataset: 40,350 GT design figure), 210.5 m in length with a beam of 28 m and a draught of 6.53 m, built at Fincantieri's Marghera yard as hull 6251. She carries 604 passengers by her article's figure — marketed as 600 guests in 300 all-veranda suites on a double-occupancy basis; the dataset's 635 is best read as a maximum with additional berths occupied, and is logged as a variant. Her machinery is four Wärtsilä 12V32 diesel engines totalling 23,040 kW, driving two electric propulsion motors; the accident investigation gives a service speed of 15 knots, with 18.6 knots — the dataset's figure — as her maximum. Crew at delivery was reported as more than 400, supporting Seabourn's high crew-to-guest ratio positioning. Her registered owner sits within the Holland America Group, which is also her ISM manager; the dataset's operator history, which lists Holland America Line alongside Seabourn, reflects that management relationship rather than a period of Holland America operation, and is logged as a point to clarify.
Design and construction
Seabourn signed a letter of intent for the ship in October 2013 and the construction contract in January 2014; her name was announced in January 2015. Steel cutting took place at Marghera in April 2015 and the keel was laid on 15 September 2015. She was launched on 4 March 2016, at a ceremony attended by Marnie Tihany, wife of the ship's interior designer, and completed and delivered at Marghera on 30 November 2016 — Fincantieri's first delivery to Seabourn.
The design brief was evolutionary. Adam D. Tihany, the hospitality designer responsible for her interiors — the first Seabourn ship designed throughout by him — described the intent as making the ship feel more like a luxury yacht than a small cruise ship: the Odyssey-class arrangement retained and refined, an extra deck added, public rooms expanded, and the whole ship given a more contemporary, residential character. Hydrodynamic refinement of the hull was also claimed to reduce fuel consumption significantly against the earlier class.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The name Encore was a statement of programme rather than a revival: a second act for the enlarged Seabourn, following the Odyssey class. After delivery at Marghera on 30 November 2016, the ship positioned to Singapore, where she was officially christened on 7 January 2017. Her godmother was Sarah Brightman, the British soprano — announced in November 2016 — who named the ship at a ceremony attended also by guests of her fleetmate Seabourn Sojourn, then in port. She departed the same day on her inaugural voyage, a 10-day "Gems of the Java Sea" cruise to Indonesia; demand for the maiden sailing was reported to have sold out within two days of opening. The dataset's maiden-voyage date, 2017-01-07, is the christening and inaugural departure date.
Career by operator
Seabourn Encore has had one name and one operator throughout her career.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2017–present | Seabourn Encore | Seabourn Cruise Line |
Her service has been the world-roving pattern typical of the Seabourn fleet: long, port-intensive seasons moving between regions rather than a fixed weekly circuit, beginning in Asia and Australasia and extending across the Mediterranean and, later, transpacific and Americas voyages. The COVID-19 pandemic suspended her operations, as it did the whole fleet; Seabourn's restart placed her return in early 2022 in the Canary Islands and Mediterranean. She completed her first decade afloat as one of the two-ship Encore class at the head of the conventional (non-expedition) Seabourn fleet.
Onboard character
Encore's onboard character is defined by scale deliberately held in check. At roughly 600 guests she is large by Seabourn's own history but small by industry standards, and every cabin is a suite with a private veranda — there are no inside or ocean-view-only cabins, and no balconied/non-balconied hierarchy of the big-ship kind. Tihany's interiors replaced the Odyssey class's more formal luxury with a yacht-like, contemporary residential style: muted palettes, curved forms and public rooms sized for conversation rather than spectacle.
Two era markers stand out. The ship carried Seabourn's partnership with chef Thomas Keller to sea in The Grill by Thomas Keller, and introduced a dedicated Sushi restaurant, the line's first. And she formalised the top-deck retreat — The Retreat, a screened enclave of cabanas — as the luxury lines' answer to the big ships' suite-class enclaves: quiet, bookable, and deliberately apart from the rest of the ship.
Major refits and incidents
On 12 February 2017, barely five weeks into her career, Seabourn Encore broke away from her berth at PrimePort Timaru, New Zealand, in a rapidly strengthening southerly wind gusting to about 45–50 knots. The wharf's mooring bollards progressively tore out, her stern lines failed, and her stern swung across the harbour and struck the cement carrier Milburn Carrier II, holing the carrier near the waterline and denting Encore's port quarter above the waterline. Nobody was injured. Her crew got propulsion established in time to lessen the impact and hold the ship with tugs and a pilot until she could be re-secured. New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission found the ship's own mooring equipment in good condition and not a factor; the failure lay in the bollards' fastenings and the wharf structure, and in the port company's limited knowledge of their safe working loads. The ship was detained for inspection before continuing her voyage. A minor follow-on episode days later, an ammonia leak from a shore building at Picton that closed the wharf and kept passengers aboard for about an hour, caused no damage.
No major structural refit is recorded in the sources used for this guide; her alterations since delivery have been the normal cycle of drydock maintenance and soft refurbishment for a luxury ship.
Sister ships and class
Seabourn Encore is the first of the two-ship Encore class; her only sister is Seabourn Ovation (2018), built by Fincantieri at Sestri Ponente. Together they are an enlarged development of the three-ship Odyssey class — Seabourn Odyssey (2009), Sojourn (2010) and Quest (2011), all built by T. Mariotti at Genoa — sharing the all-suite, all-veranda concept at roughly a quarter more tonnage and with an additional deck. After Ovation, Seabourn's newbuilding turned to purpose-built expedition ships, leaving the Encore pair as the line's largest conventional cruise ships.
Fate and where she is now
Seabourn Encore remains in active service with Seabourn Cruise Line, the status recorded in the dataset, as one of the two largest ships in the fleet. No sale, charter or retirement has been announced. Having survived her alarming fifth week — the Timaru breakaway — without injury or serious damage, she has settled into the long, quiet career expected of a modern luxury ship, and her significance in the fleet is as the ship that set Seabourn's present size and design direction.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabourn_Encore, https://maritime-executive.com/article/seabourn-encore-delivered, https://taic.org.nz/inquiry/mo-2017-204