Damen Shipyards and leading heavy lift specialist BigLift Shipping have transported eleven Damen tugs from the shipbuilder’s yards in Vietnam and China to Europe on one vessel, whilst the voyage was completed in less than two months.
The ship used to transport the eleven Damen tugs was BigLift’s Happy Star, a 156-metre heavy lift vessel equipped with two heavy lift mast cranes of 1100 mt each.
The Happy Star departed Halong Bay, Vietnam, for Europe on April 4th and arrived 38 days later at Vigo, Spain, to unload one tug, and then continued to Rotterdam to unload the remaining ten.
Photo courtesy: Damen
While such voyages usually require six months to plan and organise, this one had less than two months to prepare and ensure that each stage was executed on time.
Such mass deliveries do not take place often as it is rare that so many vessels are ready to be despatched at the same time.
The last time a similar event occurred was in 2015, with the Happy Star transporting 22 vessels of various types on the same route.
This brings advantages versus delivering vessels on their own hulls.
“These include having the vessels and their equipment arriving in pristine condition. The marine environment also benefits from having fewer emissions with just one ship, albeit a larger one, doing all the work,” explains Damen Shipyards in its statement.
“The Happy Star, one of the Netherlands’ premier heavy lift vessels, transporting tugs for a distinguished Dutch shipbuilder, ultimately serving various Dutch clients. We take immense pride in our contribution to this remarkable project,” said Sanne Wiegerink, commercial manager at BigLift Shipping.
