2:52pm Thursday 5th November 2009
SOUTHAMPTON’S chance to have an ocean-going liner converted into a floating hotel is diminishing after the company dismissed the idea as “highly speculative”.
However, reports Southampton based Saga Rose had been sold to an African company are wide of the mark, the Daily Echo has learned.
The news comes as South Wales scooped a highly lucrative, £20m contract, creating 300 jobs, to refit the new Saga Pearl II cruise ship, pictured top right; work that Southampton could have won before the closure of the King George V dry dock in 2007.
Earlier this year hopes were raised in the city that the cruise ship, Saga Rose, now on her last ever cruise, could be permanently moored on the waterfront as a luxury hotel.
A spokesman for the vessel’s owners, Saga Cruises, said: “The suggestion the ship would be berthed in Southampton was highly speculative.
We are studying all our options for Saga Rose.’’ Saga Rose, a regular caller to Southampton, is due to return to the city on Sunday, December 6 when she will be taken out of service as the cost of refitting the ship to conform to the latest maritime regulations was considered prohibitive.
Saga has considered berthing her permanently on Town Quay as a hotel catering for up to 460 cruise guests.
A hitch in the plan was the estimated £15m cost of ensuring Town Quay had the necessary equipment.
Royston Smith, cabinet member for economic development, said: “We would be absolutely delighted if the Saga Rose was to become a permanent fixture in Southampton.”
As Saga Rose waits to learn her fate, Saga Cruises has announced that her replacement, Saga Pearl II, will be dry-docked in Swansea for threemonths.
At present sailing as Astoria, the ship was bought by Saga at auction in Gibraltar earlier this year.
Andrew Goodsell, executive chairman of Saga, said: “The multimillionpound refit will ensure Saga Pearl II is splendid throughout and with 446 passengers she will have an intimate atmosphere.’’ Saga Pearl II’s maiden voyage will sail from Southampton in March of next year.
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