Busy times at Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen

While Dock 2 is in use for a prolonged period of time for the Midlife Update and the Appointed Maintenance of HNLMS Johan de Witt, Dock 1 has seen a couple of vessels come and go. Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (DSV) has just started the five-year survey of yacht support vessel Power Play. The 55m-long vessel was built in 2018 by Damen Shipyards Antalya and has been in dry dock since 8 September.

“Just before I went on holiday, I heard that Power Play was coming. During my holiday in Croatia we saw in a bay the yacht that this ship supports. That was a nice coincidence,” says DSV Project Manager Wesley de Marco. “The ship is now in dry dock for maintenance of the entire underwater hull. We are working on the propulsion line, the bow thrusters are being serviced, the stabilisers are being checked and a new layer of anti-fouling is being applied. We are also carrying various updates to software, electrics and, for example, moving the washing machines.”

It was originally intended that the job would be done by Damen Yachting, but due to their busy schedule they had to look for another solution. “They asked if we could help out and we were happy to do so,” Wesley explains. “It’s the cooperation with the 14-strong crew on board and with Damen Yachting that makes this a fun project.”

Just before Power Play arrived at the dock, DSV had another interesting job: the maintenance of offshore supply vessel GEOSEA. The vessel is currently being used by the Dutch Navy and has its home port in Den Helder. She came to Vlissingen for interim maintenance and a make-over. “This was a nice assignment, in which we changed the colour of the ship. GEOSEA arrived red and departed blue. We also worked on the thrusters and the propulsion.”

The intention was to leave the thrusters under the ship during the work, but the Kongsberg Maritime specialist who helped with the project decided otherwise, says Wesley. “Everything had to go underneath. That made the project a little more complicated than expected, but we finished the job in 20 days. This kind of thing is what makes ship repair so interesting to me compared to, say, new construction; there is a lot of on-the-spot thinking. You can’t plan as much and often have to act very creatively and quickly.”

GEOSEA left Vlissingen-Oost in August sporting her new blue colour and Power Play will probably be delivered back to the customer at the end of October.