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2024 was a significant year in the history of Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen. When asked to pick out the highlights of the previous year, DSV’s Managing Director Michiel de Vliegher has quite a few to choose from. “Our 60-year anniversary was an important celebratory milestone for all the team here. We actually celebrated this twice: the first time on a small scale, just with colleagues and their partners. And then again in a more official setting with 250 guests including clients, suppliers and local council representatives,” Michiel answers.
In 2024, Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen celebrated its 60th anniversary.
“And in terms of projects, we had a returning superyacht client, which has led to a new project that is already here at the yard, which is great news. And a Dutch Naval Client the HNLMS Rotterdam was definitely another top point for us, during which we helped the client – the Dutch Directorate of Materiel Sustainment – prepare this amphibious transport ship for a strategic lay-up period,” Michiel says. You can read more about DSV’s work on the HNLMS Rotterdam here.
As well as the larger ‘headline’ projects, it is notable that DSV worked on an impressive number of smaller projects in 2024, receiving more than a 100 vessels to its quayside and dock facilities last year. The varying size of these projects illustrates the diversity of the work that DSV carries out for its clients; it also shows the need for a flexible mindset regarding planning.
DSV prepared HNLMS Rotterdam for a strategic lay-up period.
“A big project that might take as long as 18 months and involve hundreds of people is planned months in advance. A medium-sized job – such as a five-year scheduled maintenance to keep a ship within the classification society requirements – may be booked three or four weeks beforehand. And then we have the last minute projects that can hardly be planned. These ad hoc projects are booked days in advance – sometimes arriving on the same day – and involve tasks such as minor steel repairs, replacing a section of old piping, or repairing an anchor winch or a complete damage repair after a collision or on board fire.”
“We try to do our yard planning as efficiently as possible, always leaving some space for the last minute jobs. The faster and better that we can react for the small jobs, the better.” Michiel de Vliegher
IT International Telecom's cable-laying vessel IT Intrepid came to DSV for maintenance work.
This wide range of types and sizes of projects means that clients’ needs and expectations also vary hugely; this has an impact on DSV’s planning. “We try to do our yard planning as efficiently as possible, always leaving some space for the last minute jobs. The faster and better that we can react for the small jobs, the better.”
In terms of looking after its shipyard infrastructure, 2024 was once again a productive year for DSV. “We replaced a lot of the mooring fenders, the purpose of which is to protect both our quaysides and our clients’ ship during mooring operations. We installed shore power on to our tugboat jetty, and we gave the drydock door to our covered dock some major maintenance. And we are happy to say that we got our shore crane back to work after a long period of maintenance.”
Van Oord's new cable layer Calypso at the quay at Vlissingen-Oost.
As Michiel looks ahead to 2025, there are several points of focus. Besides having another “safe and sustainable year of operations”, there are definite plans to increase the shipyard’s shore power capacity. Michiel is cautiously optimistic about the possibility of adding a second covered dock to DSV’s facilities by covering dock number 1. “This represents a major investment, which will guarantee far greater market access.”
Another area of attention will be the recruitment of personnel. “It is still very challenging to find good people in the current employment market,” he says. “We have a total of 115 FTE, but around four or five people retire every year. And considering that some of our team have been working here for 40-plus years, we lose a lot of experience when people retire. It’s important for these more experienced team members to transfer their knowledge to new colleagues before they retire.”
Staffing is a key focus for DSV: retaining current employees and recruiting new colleagues.
In addition to offering a number of student apprenticeships, DSV has welcomed an increasing number of people making a career switch over the past few years. “These people are very enthusiastic about working here and the training programmes we offer. We will be promoting this a lot more in 2025 – showing potential new colleagues how good it is to work here.”
A further ongoing aim for the coming year will be to continue investing in client relationships. “This is both for our commercial and naval clients, for which we are working on the acquisition of some big projects. Some of these involve our collaborative partnerships with Damen Naval and Damen Yachting. We often work together on joint projects, combining our knowledge. This greatly increases the effectiveness of our work, which enables our clients to get back to sea as quickly as possible.”
DSV opened a sports field for crew, suppliers and Damen employees.
Michiel hopes that the social aspects of work at DSV will continue to flourish, in particular the use of the newly introduced sports field. “This opened at the end of 2024 and was sponsored with help from Damen Naval, Damen Yachting and some of our key subcontractors. As the weather improves, it will be nice to see this sports field being used more and more; for five-a-side football or basketball.” Read more about the DSV sports field here.