At 69.16m long and an impressive 11.2m high, it is reportedly 30% bigger than any previous ship on the Lake and has been built in the open air simply because it would not fit into the Bodan building hall.

Sonnenkönigin has been designed as a floating concert, theatre and fashion event ship with rooms over four decks. It has a retractable stage and rostrum on the main deck and the two upper gallery decks can be turned into theatre balconies. The owners say it will also boast 1,000 sq/m of glass surfaces with 42 sliding doors, state of the art lighting, audio and other presentation technologies, comfortable seating, three bars and a lounge.

The Bodan Shipyard said 450 tons of steel had gone into the making of Sonnenkönigin and that about 100 km of cable had been laid. The vessel will be 14.5m wide and draw up to 2.1m.

The vessel will weigh some 950 tons, with its two diesel engines providing a combined 2,500 hp and a speed of 30 kms/hour. Bodan said that instead of the horizontally mounted Voith Schneider propulsion used in many ferries, the new ship will have normal screw propulsion. That, said project head Lutz Kober, would eliminate vibration.

The ship’s owners are the new Sonnenkönigin AG in St Gallen on the Swiss shore of the lake, which borders on Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Majority shareholder is the Silvretta Nova Group, whose participants include Austria’s Vorarlberg Lines.

By Tom Todd