Currently under construction in India at the Classcraft Marine Works shipyard in Mumbai is the 49.5m cruise ship Alanzo I, under construction for Hamburg-based Club Alanzo VIP Cruises.  This luxury vessel, capable of carrying 12 passengers, could be the forerunner of a larger series is luxury Chinese junk cruise vessels.

Alanzo I is being built as a replica of the 1834-built Chinese pirate junk Red Dragon, using original construction methods and a wide variety of timer for her construction, including teak, balau, sal, kapur and babool.

The cruise junk feature nine passenger cabins including two 540ft² Owners Cabins and seven 320ft² cabins. Completion of the vessel is set for the end of 2008 with the maiden voyage expected in April 2009. However, this is dependent on whether the German owners can get US $10m from private equity investors to fund the construction of the vessel.  If this is successful then the Hamburg company will build a second vessel, Alanzo II; a much larger vessel at 160m with capacity for 150 passengers and a steel hull instead of a wooden one.

Once delivered Alanzo I will initially undertake a series of seven two week round-trip cruises from Mumbai to the Maldives, Mauritius, the Seychelles and Madagascar.  She will then redeploy to Europe for a season of Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona to Nice, Cannes, Monaco and the Balearic Islands. From January through to the end of May each year the vessel will operate in the Caribbean.

Alanzo I is very much a luxury product with hotel partners in the project including Dubai’s Burj Al Arab and Barbados’ Sandy Lane hotel.

The vessel has been designed by Mumbai’s CyberMarine Knowledge Systems with interiors from Indian designer Fali Unwalla.