Dutch family-owned company Van Oord announced that Vox Alexia, a trailing suction hopper dredger and the cable-laying vessel Calypso will be christened in the city centre of Rotterdam on 9 September 2023.
Vox Alexia is named after Her Royal Highness Princess Alexia, the second daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
Princess Alexia accepted the invitation to perform the christening ceremony, in accordance with the company. After the ceremony, Princess Alexia will be given a tour on the ship and she will meet a number of staff members, including crew members and members of the Young Van Oord association.
In the afternoon of 9 September 2023, Ms. Inca Cerutti will be christening the vessel Calypso. Ms Cerutti is the wife of Niek Hoek, chairman of the company’s supervisory board, and she will be given a tour on the ship after the ceremony as well.
Vox Alexia is a trailing suction hopper dredger, a type of dredger that collects sand, clay, sludge and even gravel from sea or river beds. Like recently christened sister vessels Vox Ariane and Vox Apolonia, the vessel is equipped with a LNG fuel system.
These three new LNG vessels have a significantly lower carbon footprint than conventional trailing suction hopper dredgers and fit in with Van Oord’s aim of making its fleet more economical and sustainable.
The Calypso is the latest addition to Van Oord’s offshore wind fleet and the company’s second cable-laying vessel. The vessel is equipped with two cable carousels, one above deck and one below deck. This makes the vessel suitable for laying two cables simultaneously.
The Calypso will mainly be used for installing inter-array grid and export cables for offshore wind projects, as a result of which it will contribute to the energy transition.
The final construction phase of the Calypso took place at the Vard Brattvaag shipyard in Norway, where the cable-related equipment was installed. It’s worth mentioning that the Calypso is Van Oord’s second cable-laying vessel in addition to the Nexus.
