Her Majesty the Queen of Belgium christened the new offshore installation vessel of the Jan De Nul Group today.
The vessel, named Vole au Vent, was christened in the Port of Ostend – the base port of Jan de Nul’s team for the Nobelwind (Bligh Bank Phase 2) project – in the presence of the family and employees of the Jan De Nul Group and their guests, including Parkwind, the developer of the Nobelwind project, worldwide partners from the industry, as well as national and international politicians.
After the christening ceremony, Her Majesty the Queen paid a visit to the bridge and crew of the vessel together with the Jan De Nul family, Carl Decaluwé, Governor of West Flanders, Johan Vande Lanotte, Mayor of Ostend, and Bart Tommelein, Secretary of State.
After the delegation had left the vessel, the Vole au Vent immediately returned to a nearby quay in the port to resume the activities for the Nobelwind project.
The opportunity to take over the Vole au Vent, one of the largest vessels of its kind in the world, presented itself in mid-2015 and Jan De Nul invested in the vessel aiming to be a quality partner in the offshore wind energy industry
Vole au Vent is 140 metres long and features a Liebherr crane on deck. The large deck space, high loading capacity and the lifting capacity of 1,400 tonnes allows the installation of all types of foundations and the latest generation of wind turbines at sea in water depths of up to 50 metres.
Even though the vessel has been specifically built for the execution of offshore wind projects, it is also deployable for other offshore industries such as oil & gas.
Interested in delving deeper into the offshore wind supply chain? Come to the Offshore WIND Conference, which will be held on 24 and 25 October 2016 as part of the Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference. For more information on the conference, visit www.offshoreWINDconference.com .