WORD ON THE SEA
Photo courtesy of Damen Shipyards Group
SBI’s Charles van den Oosterkamp
From left to right: René Berkvens, CEO Damen Shipyards Group; Durk-Jan Nederlof, Managing Director Damen Shiprepair and Conversion Group; Jeroen Heesters, Managing Director Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen; and Bert van Hoepen, Director Damen/Royal Schelde Group.
HALF A CENTURY OF SHIP REPAIR Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen is part of Damen In October Damen celebrated 50 years of ship repair at its facility in East Vlissingen, the Netherlands. Shiprepair & Conversion – a network of 16 repair I was among the large crowd gathered to look and conversion yards worldwide, with dry docks back at the ‘Scheldepoort’ years and look forward ranging up to 420 x 80 metres. As well as repair and to continuing successes in the growing complex maintenance (DS&C handles 1,500 jobs annually), conversion market under the Damen Shiprepair & conversion projects range from vessel retrofits to the Conversion group. complete conversion of large offshore structures. The yard has been a For example, this summer mainstay in ship repair since Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen 1964 when Queen Juliana completed three work scopes opened the newly dredged on the Rowan Viking, a Keppel deepwater port at East FELS N Class drilling rig. These Vlissingen. The yard was included a method never A method never seen known then, and still by many seen before to improve safety today, as ‘Scheldepoort’ after before to improve safety and reduce lead-time while the Western Scheldt estuary extending the jack-up legs from and reduce lead-time. where the yard is located. 170 to 180m. The project also Back then it was part of the included a Special Periodic Royal Schelde Group. Founded in Vlissingen in 1875, Survey and Acknowledgement of Compliance in Royal Schelde has a long history in naval shipbuilding. accordance with NORSOK regulations. In 2000 Royal Schelde became a member of the Damen Shipyards Group and saw large investments in facilities and people at the East Vlissingen yard, which today offers some of the highest standards available in the industry. Royal Schelde’s other docks in the city of Vlissingen are now used by superyacht builder and Charles van den Oosterkamp refit yard Amels, also a part of Damen. charles@ynfpublishers.com
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