Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen News

Michiel de Vliegher, Damen: "Choose the right software for every maritime project"Since the beginning of his career, Michiel de Vliegher has been involved with data. One moment, he’s working on making ships more sustainable, and the next, he’s focused on improving shipbuilding processes. Since April of this year, he has been the Director of Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen. Together, we explore his experience with digitalisation and how he is making advancements in this area at his impressive shipyard. We also delve into the digital future.

Effective November 1, 2021, Jeroen Heesters will be the new Managing Director of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion, one of the seven divisions of the Damen Shipyards Group. With Finance Director Eric Snoeren, who joined the division on 1 October, he will make up the management team.After graduating in mechanical engineering, Heesters worked in the oil and gas industry. In 2008, he moved to Damen Shipyards Group, where he worked for Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam and Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen, among others.

Ten months after the final assembly of the offshore substation (OSS) for the new Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm started at Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSV), the substation topside has now been moved outside the construction hall so that further outfitting can take place.The Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm, owned by Northland Power, will have 33 turbines, situated 95 kilometers northwest of Germany’s Borkum Island, in the North Sea. The wind farm will have a total capacity of 269 MW.Van Oord is managing the overall Balance of Plant scope…

Smulders, acting for and on behalf of the JV Iemants-Eiffage, has reached the next step in the realization of the substation for the Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm.Ten months after starting the final assembly in January 2018 at the yard of Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen, the substation topside was driven outside for further outfitting on 21 October. Offshore installation is planned in the first half of 2019.The topside will be installed on top of the 60 meter high jacket foundation, which is also being built by Smulders.The Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm will be an impressive wind farm with 33 turbines, situated 95 kilometres northwest of the Borkum Island in Germany.

Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC) has recently completed works in Vlissingen and Brest on two major vessels in the fleet of dredging and marine construction specialist Jan de Nul Group. One of these is the Vole au vent, a 140-meter jack-up vessel built specifically for the installation of the latest generation of offshore wind turbines. The other is the trailing suction hopper dredger Leiv Eiriksson. Both vessels are among the largest in their classes, anywhere in the world.

Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC) plans to lay off around 150 workers as part of its reorganisation program at three Dutch yards within its group. All employees at the three locations — Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam (DSR), Damen Shiprepair Van Brink (DSVB) and Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSVl) — have been informed, along with the workers' council and trade unions. It is the intention of DSC to complete the reorganization before summer 2017. Making matters worse, market expectations for the short and medium term are not positive. DSC says it is reducing the number of permanent staff throughout all levels of the organization as well as reducing facility costs.

A number of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion yards have recently or will soon achieve new ISO certifications as part of an ongoing initiative to standardize operating procedures across the group. Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam (DSAm) and Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSVl) have passed ISO 3834-2 certificate audits. This standard defines rigorous quality procedures for the fusion welding of metallic materials and represents the highest possible accolade in the welding industry. The achievement demonstrates the ability of DSAm and DSVl to undertake the largest refit and conversion projects…

Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam (DSAm), part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC), has completed maintenance works on cruise vessels Marco Polo and Magellan. Both vessels are operated by British based Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), part of the Global Maritime Group. The works represent the on-going business relationship between Damen and CMV. Marco Polo is certainly no stranger to Damen Shiprepair & Conversion, having benefitted from maintenance stopovers at Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen in the past. During the initial docking process at the yard, Marco Polo was inspected by DSAm Project Manager Wouter van den Bossche. “After examining the vessel, we scheduled various equipment overhauls and repainting,” he says.

Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen recently completed a broad scope of maintenance and repair works on the Van Oord-owned Split Hopper Barges Jan Blanken and Jan Leeghwater. The vessels, both with 2,853 m3 hopper capacity, left the yard on schedule just 10 days after arrival. For example, all the ships’ systems needed to be checked and bought back up to speed where necessary. Minor steel works and touch-up painting were also required on both vessels. Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen handled the two sister vessels in its floating dock which, with its 229-metre length and 23,000-tonne lifting capacity, was more than able to accommodate the pair. The yard’s floating dock complements the rest of its facilities, including a 175-metre dry dock, a 215-metre covered drydock and three lay-by berths.

Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSV), part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC), has said farewell to Marco Polo, the 800 passenger cruise ship owned by Global Maritime and operated by Cruise & Maritime Voyages. Launched in 1964 as the Aleksandr Pushkin, she was in for her 10th special survey and general maintenance and refurbishment. The project took around five weeks to complete. An elegant vessel whose design harks back to an earlier era, the Marco Polo had a full schedule of works during her time at DSV.

Bolidt has been selected to supply decking solutions across a wide range of Dutch maritime projects that encompass the entire range of industry sectors. The Dutch flooring and decking specialist will be showcasing its comprehensive range of synthetic decking solutions at Europort 2015. Support in its domestic market has always been strong, but 2015 has been particularly positive for Bolidt. The company has completed numerous projects for both Dutch shipowners and shipyards, with Bolidt products selected as decking solutions for super yachts, navy vessels, fishing trawlers and ferries. One of the most innovative projects is the ingenious Texelstroom ferry, based on unconventional thinking and close partnerships between C-Job, Vripack and TESO.

Electrical system integrator Alewijnse Marine Systems is celebrating the first anniversary of delivering electrical services and maintenance to vessels at Damen Shiprepair Dunkerque. Twelve months after it began work there, the results are well above expectations with 19 contracts fulfilled for 10 vessels, representing a strong start, the company reports. The delivery of electrical services and maintenance to vessels at Damen Shiprepair Dunkerque started in April 2014 with the MPI Resolution maintenance project, a turbine installation vessel.

Damen delivered a new DOC 8500 cable laying vessel, Nexus, to international offshore contractor Van Oord on December 22. The 126-metre vessel is intended for the installation of electricity cables for offshore wind farms. Van Oord is currently making preparations for the Gemini offshore wind farm which will be constructed 55 kilometers to the north of Schiermonnikoog, one of the Dutch Wadden Islands, and the cable-laying vessel will be deployed initially at that site. Despite encountering some challenges during the build process…

Damen Shiprepair & Conversion has recently carried out a number of cruise ship repair and refurbishment projects in the Netherlands, including Astor and Marco Polo, both operated by Cruise & Maritime Voyages. The vessels have been at Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSV) for a wide-ranging program of scheduled and unscheduled work. Damen carried out its scope within a tight timeframe so that both ships were ready for planned onward voyages. Astor, with passenger capacity just over 600, arrived at DSV on October 17.

Alewijnse Marine Systems has been awarded the contract for the full electrical refit of the 114 metre diving support vessel Seawell, owned by Helix Energy Solutions Group. The Seawell is currently in the North Sea and is expected at the Damen Shiprepair Yard in Vlissingen at mid December 2014 for a planned long term life extension. Alewijnse will spend four months on site, with the work due to start next month. The 114m vessel first entered service in 1987 and is widely credited with pioneering subsea light well intervention in the North Sea. She also operates as a saturation diving vessel.

After a very fast and successful 17-day drydocking the cruise ship MSC Magnifica left Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam (part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion) for Hamburg on schedule to start her next cruise. Next week (December 2) another cruise vessel will arrive at Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam - the 200 m MS Saga Sapphire. In the meantime, Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen recently handled two, 167 m cruise ships, the Astor and Marco Polo. Commenting on the MSC Magnifica project, Marc Derks, Shiprepair Rotterdam Project Manager, comments: “This was an excellent operation, I am very proud of the team. Built in 2010, the MSC Magnifica is 293 m long and has a capacity for more than 2,500 passengers.

After having docked and repaired the MSV Seawell in 2012 and DSV Well Enhancer earlier this year, Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSV) was contracted by Helix UK to perform a major upgrade on the light well intervention/dive support vessel MSV Seawell. The Seawell is expected to arrive at the yard during second half of December 2014. As the upgrade will be executed over the winter season, DSV has offered its covered drydock with a 300 tons overhead crane. The upgrade includes an exchange of all six gensets including new foundations…

With the support of Palfinger systems JUMP technology, Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen has completed an upgrade of a Keppel Fels ‘N’ Class drilling rig, one of the largest in the North Sea, in 30 days less than was initially projected by the client. Rig owner Rowan Companies Plc projected that the work on the Rowan Viking would require 130 days, but due to the application of innovative project planning techniques and highly specialized equipment Dutch shipyard Damen was able to reduce this by nearly 25 percent.

Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen, part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion, has completed a major upgrade of a Keppel Fels ‘N’ Class drilling rig, one of the largest in the North Sea, in thirty days less than was initially projected by the client. Owner Rowan Companies plc. projected that the work on the Rowan Viking would require 130 days, but through the application of innovative project planning techniques and highly specialised equipment Damen was able to reduce this by nearly 25 percent. The scope of the project involved the extension of the three legs by 10 metres to 180 metres, a five-yearly special periodic survey and bringing the rig up to standard for the AoC (acknowledgement of compliance) certification required by the Norwegian authorities.

Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen, part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion, has completed the upgrade of a Keppel Fels ‘N’ Class drilling rig, one of the largest in the North Sea, in thirty days less than was initially projected by the client. Owner Rowan Companies plc. projected that the work on the Rowan Viking would require 130 days, but through the application of innovative project planning techniques and highly specialized equipment Damen was able to reduce this by nearly 25 percent.

Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSV), part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion, says it has been awarded a contract by a subsidiary of Rowan Companies plc to remodel the 'Rowan Viking', a Keppel Fels ‘N’ Class Drilling Rig. The rig, which at 124 (l) x 95 (w) x 170 (h) metres is one of the largest of its type. Damen explains that because  the leg extension work will be done at great heights, DSV has contracted Palfinger Systems to use the latter’s unique JUMP Systems. JUMP stands for Jack Up Maintenance Platform. These are platforms that can be built around, and moved up and down, the legs. Mammoet’s largest PTC cranes will be used to hoist the 120-tonne leg extensions. The crane will be more than 200 metres high (nearly four times the height of the covered dock at the shipyard in Vlissingen).

Alewijnse Marine Systems performed electrical repairs and modifications on the flexible fallpipe vessel Stornes within a challenging timeframe. The vessel has left Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen after just three weeks of repairs, modifications and the commissioning of its electrical systems by a team of 40 Alewijnse technicians. Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen subcontracted the electrical repairs and modifications to long-standing partner Alewijnse Marine Systems, which has a permanent representation at the shipyard.

Alewijnse Marine Systems completed the electrical conversion of the jack-up rig Atlantic Amsterdam. The Atlantic Amsterdam has spent the last nine months at Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen being converted from a drilling rig to offshore hotel accommodation by Nordica Offshore Pte, Ltd. Alewijnse was responsible for the supply, installation, integration and commissioning of a number of critical electrical systems. The Atlantic Amsterdam, formerly called Shelf Explorer, is owned by Atlantic Amsterdam Pte. Ltd. of Singapore, a subsidiary of Ezion Holdings Ltd.