Featured Image Credit: CNN/Christopher Willson / Instagram/@aurora_restoration_project
Topics: World News, Travel
Stefania Sarrubba
Topics: World News, Travel
If you've ever wondered what it might be like to live on your own cruise ship permanently, then look no further.
An American man purchased a 2,496 tonne ship on Craigslist to make it his forever home with his partner, but renovating it has certainly been no smooth sailing.
Chris Willson came across a retired vessel held at the California Delta and decided to take a look for himself, calling the ship 'the most spectacular layouts of just about any ship I've seen'.
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Once his heart was set on buying the vessel, Willson researched into its history, discovering the ship was built back in 1955 at the Blohm and Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany.
Originally named Wappen von Hamburg, the ship had been one of the main passenger liners to come out of Germany following World War II.
Willson took it upon himself to renovate the vessel after he managed to 'work out a really good deal with the owner' in 2008.
Sold at $1.2 million and renamed Aurora, the ship is a 293-foot cruise vessel with everything a big passenger liner could ask for at the time it was built: three decks, 85 cabins with en-suite bathrooms, a dining room and salon, and an outdoor swimming pool.
After buying it, Willson had his Aurora moved to the California river city of Rio Vista where he began a lease and restored to Kickstarter to have Wappen von Hamburg restored, a feat he compared to redo 15 houses.
"I figured it was going to be a long project," Willson said in an interview with CNN Travel.
"The scale of it was massive. It's almost the same as redoing 15 houses all by yourself."
To be all hands on deck on the ship's renovation, Willson and his partner Jin Li ended up moving onto the cruiser, and still reside there.
In 2022, Willson predicted that he'd spent a whopping $1 million on the boat's upgrades.
"Once you have finished one end of the ship, you have to start all over again by the time you get to the other end," he told Insider.
"Even a brand new ship requires maintenance right off the bat."
You can follow Willson's updates about the Aurora on his social platforms, including a YouTube channel in which he shares his crew's progress with his followers.
At the time of writing, the last video dates back to January 2024, as does the most recent Facebook image of the Aurora.