Quark Expeditions · Polar Class 6 · 199 guests
Ultramarine
Two helicopters, twenty Zodiacs and a Polar Class 6 hull. The ship built to spend more of the day off the ship, in Svalbard, Greenland and the Northwest Passage.
Quark Expeditions
The Arctic from the air, and from the water.
Two twin-engine H145 helicopters on two landing pads, twenty Zodiacs launched from four doors at once, and a hull built to Polar Class 6. Ultramarine was drawn in Norway and built in Split for one purpose: more time off the ship. 199 guests, 140 crew, and an expedition team that flies you to the Greenland ice sheet before lunch. Quark has sailed the polar regions since 1991. This is the ship they built when they had learnt everything they needed to.
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Two H145 helicopters
Twenty Zodiacs, four doors
The Tundra Sauna
Scandinavian interiors
Ultramarine moments
The ship was designed around the hours off it, and then around the hours in between: a sauna with glass on three sides, a bistro that stays open, a theatre where the day’s flight is replayed on the big screen.
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Nine minutes to the ice sheet
The helicopters lift from the aft pads, nine guests at a time. In South Greenland they land on the ice cap; in Svalbard they fly the glacier fronts from above. The first flight tends to end a conversation at dinner.
Nine minutes to the ice sheet
The helicopters lift from the aft pads, nine guests at a time. In South Greenland they land on the ice cap; in Svalbard they fly the glacier fronts from above. The first flight tends to end a conversation at dinner.
Life on board
A day on Ultramarine has more in it than most. A helicopter flight before breakfast if the weather holds, a Zodiac cruise after, a hike or a paddle in the afternoon, the polar plunge when the expedition leader calls it. The ship absorbs it all: a sauna, a spa, a theatre, two restaurants and a crew of 140 for 199 guests.
The Tundra Spa and Sauna on deck 8, a fitness centre with a view, and a sauna that empties only when the helicopters start.
Space and light
Staterooms and suites
A hundred and three suites over four decks, almost all with a balcony, and the most generous footprints in this class. Pale Scandinavian interiors, heated bathroom floors, and windows drawn for the view rather than the wall.
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Penthouse Suite
The suite offers approximately 369 sq. ft. (34.3 m²) of indoor living space paired with a 67 sq. ft. (6.2 m²) private balcony. The expansive bathrooms also feature heated floors, a standalone shower, and a bathtub
Penthouse Suite
The suite offers approximately 369 sq. ft. (34.3 m²) of indoor living space paired with a 67 sq. ft. (6.2 m²) private balcony. The expansive bathrooms also feature heated floors, a standalone shower, and a bathtub
Ultramarine
Built in Split for the helicopters
Ultramarine was designed by LMG Marin in Bergen and delivered by Brodosplit in Croatia in 2021. She is 128 metres and 13,500 tonnes, with Ice Class 1A+ and Polar Class 6 notation, stabilisers, and four main engines for 16 knots in open water. She carries two H145 helicopters on two pads, twenty Zodiacs at four embarkation points, 199 guests in 103 suites and 140 crew.
In the Arctic she sails the circumnavigation of Spitsbergen, Svalbard in spring, the new route from Scotland to Spitsbergen, South Greenland by helicopter and the Northwest Passage. Quark Expeditions built her for exactly those voyages.
- 199 guests · 140 crew
- Polar Class 6 · 128 m
- 20 Zodiacs · 2 helicopters
The expedition
How a day off the ship is made
Quark calls them adventure options. Some are included, some are booked before you sail, and the expedition team decides each morning which the weather allows.
Included on helicopter voyages: a flight over the glacier fronts, the ice cap or the fjord walls, nine guests at a time, weather permitting.
Her Arctic season
Voyages aboard Ultramarine
Spitsbergen in spring or around the whole archipelago, Scotland to Svalbard, South Greenland by helicopter, the Northwest Passage. Tell us the month you have in mind and we will tell you which sailing suits it, which suite, and what we can do on the fare.
All expeditions
Good to know
Ultramarine, in practice
The questions we are asked most before guests choose this ship.
199 guests in 103 suites, with 140 crew and an expedition team of around twenty. Two Ready Rooms and four Zodiac doors put the whole ship on the water at once.
Flightseeing is included on the helicopter voyages, weather permitting. Heli-landings and heli-hiking are booked in advance and limited to small groups. Quark publishes which options each sailing carries, and we confirm them when we book.
Her hull carries Ice Class 1A+ and Polar Class 6 notation, built for the summer pack of Svalbard and the fjords of Greenland. Stabilisers steady the crossings.
All meals, wine and beer with dinner, the expedition programme, Zodiac cruises and landings, guided hikes, flightseeing where offered, a parka to keep, boots to borrow and the charter flights listed on each voyage. Kayaking, heli-landings and other adventure options are booked in advance.
Via Helsinki or Oslo for Svalbard, via Reykjavík for Greenland and the Northwest Passage, with the Quark charter onward. We arrange the flights and the nights either side so the whole journey sits in one booking.
Made to measure
Tell us your Arctic, we build the rest
Every guest sails differently. Tell us what you are hoping for and who you are travelling with, and we shape the voyage aboard Ultramarine around it: the sailing, the suite, the adventure options worth booking early, the flights from Australia, and the offers we hold for Arctic Cruise guests. One specialist, from the first conversation until you are home.
The fleet
Other ships we sail
Each ship we work with has her own character and her own Arctic. Ocean Explorer is Quark’s smaller ship for West Greenland and the Canadian crossings; SH Diana and SH Vega are the Scandinavian sisters.
Learn more
