Peter De Ridder News

A start has been made on the construction by Sietas of the first sections and blocks of a offshore wind power jack-up vessel for the  Dutch marine engineering company Van Oord. Sietas is the first German shipyard to build one of these special-purpose vessels. Delivery is scheduled for the spring of 2013. In addition, Van Oord has an option on a second vessel of the same type. "The offshore market and wind farms are becoming more challenging. In future the foundations for these wind farms will be laid in water depths of up to 50 metres, instead of the current 30 metres. The turbines to drive the generators will in future require a power output of five to six megawatts, so they have become bigger and heavier.

In the shipbuilding hall of the Sietas shipyard in Hamburg, a start has now been made on the construction of a German premiere. Production has started on the first sections and blocks of the offshore wind power jack-up vessel for the prestigious Dutch marine engineering company Van Oord. In the presence of Peter de Ridder, COO of Van Oord, engineers from the specialist in complex offshore projects and the Sietas team, receiver Berthold Brinkmann and Rüdiger Fuchs, agent for the receiver, gave the go-ahead for the German premiere.