Multiple maintenance tasks for Damen group yards

Finnish Suezmax tanker Alfa Brittania’, Norwegian Suezmax tanker Erviken and Swedish VLCC Stena Perros docked in November 2012. In addition to these jobs, the re-engining of the French Navy support vessel Langevin and technical works on the multi-purpose offshore installation vessel Bourbon Enterprise were contracted.

Jos Goris, managing director of Damen Shiprepair Brest, said: “It is very good news that the trust of the international shipping community in the capacities and capabilities of Damen Shiprepair Brest is rapidly increasing. Our highly motivated workforce and the continuous enforcement, throughout the ranks, on high quality under secure conditions, is highly appreciated by our customers. Having five vessels simultaneously on our docks 1,2 and 3, as well as alongside the quays also reflects our commitment to the maritime community in Brest.”

Damen’s Amsterdam-based Oranjewerf Ship Repair yard won a job on an interesting vessel in November. Just a few days after winning the overhaul order for the 1949-built Norderney, the ship was towed into the yard on a bend opposite Amsterdam’s Central Station.

The 50m ship was built in Hamburg as Iceland trawler Paul Müller but was best known in later guise as pirate radio ship Veronica. Oranjewerf commercial manager Jeen van der Werf said that the yard acquired the order from current owner Entertainment International, to remove biofouling – or, as literally translated from Dutch, ‘clip and shear’– then to measure the thickness of sheets of the ships’ hull, and to apply a new layer of paint to the hull. When these jobs have been done, the Norderney will be towed to the Eemskanaal at Groningen, where she will be refurbished to become a multifunctional floating venue for radio and TV broadcasting and public performances.

Damen Dredging Equipment has also been involved in a conversion project, involving fitting Damen dredging equipment to a Chinese dredger to allow it to dredge to greater depths.

The work involves a redesign of the Jie Long to adapt it to cutter dredging at 50mdepth, as required for work on Macau-Hong Kong-Zhu Hai transport link. Damen engineered and delivered the components, and supervised the outfitting process.

The Jie Long started life as a plain suction dredger, and had previously been converted to a conventional cutter suction dredger. Owner CCCC Guangzhou Dredging needed to use the dredger on new, deeper-water projects and so entrusted the complete refurbishment to Damen.

Following a visit to asses the state of the ship and its current equipment, Damen engineers designed new customised ladder hinge points in the fore pontoons. A completely new ladder arrangement was engineered, which included a submerged dredge pump and a cutter unit. A Damen OBP4015 dredge pump was installed at the half-way point of the ladder. The pump is electrically driven by a direct-drive 500kW motor at 600 rpm, without a gear box. A standard CSD450 hydraulically driven cutter unit was fitted.

For the transport link project, involving tunneling as well as bridge construction, the cutter unit can be replaced by a dustpan head, which will be used to clean the tunnel track before the tunnel elements are positioned.

The winches of the Jie Long are equipped with a constant tension system which uses Damen Navguard software to determine and keep position. The delivery included Damen dredging instrumentation including vacuum and pressure indication of the dredge pump and flow, and density measurement of the dredged mixture.

All equipment was designed and built in the Netherlands, and shipped to Guangzhou where, the Damen Field Service team undertook the conversion.

Meanwhile, in December Damen officially opened its new facility in South Africa. Damen Shipyards Cape Town has added a 1,125m² workshop and logistics centre with offices and meeting rooms above, overlooking Cape Town harbour and Table Mountain. Following the establishment of DSCT in 2007, the company has experienced growth and has a full order book, with over 200 workers at the yard.