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A start has been made on a Germanpremiere in the shipbuilding hall of the Sietas shipyard in Hamburg: the first sec- tions and blocks of the offshore wind power jack-up vessel for the Dutch ma- rine engineering company Van Oord. In the presence of Peter de Ridder, COO of Van Oord, engineers from the specialist in complex offshore projects and the Si- etas team, receiver Berthold Brinkmann and Rüdiger Fuchs, agent for the receiver, gave the go-ahead for the German pre- miere. Sietas is the first German shipyard to build the special-purpose vessel. De- livery is scheduled for the spring of 2013. ?We are delighted to be starting on the construction of this vessel. It is the first of a new generation for us,? said Peter de Ridder, COO of Van Oord. ?The offshore market and the wind farms are getting more and more challenging. In future thefoundations for more and more of thesewind farms will be laid in water depths of up to 50m, instead of the current 30m.The turbines to drive the generators will in future require a power output of five to six megawatts, so they have become big- ger and heavier. That is why we need this new type of vessel.? A team comprised of around 10 project managers, engineersand electricians from Van Oord will be at the Sietas shipyard throughout the con- struction period. Together with Van Oord, Sietas also developed the spe- cial-purpose vessel in 12 months. Op-erating as architect and integrator, the Sietas shipyard in collaboration with its subsidiary Neuenfelder Maschinenfabrik (NMF) is providing the development and construction of the installation ship andthe offshore crane from a single source. Van Oord first placed the order in De- cember 2010 with the Sietas shipyard, which was only able to execute the order in the context of the insolvency proceed- ings with a new agreement. This new order was then placed in February 2012. ?The offshore wind power jack-up ves- sel is groundbreaking for us and for Ger- man shipbuilding. At the same time I would also like to thank the Sietas em- ployees: they all worked together as a team to reinstate the order,? said receiver Berthold Brinkmann.About the Vessel The Sietas jack-up vessel was devel- oped for use far from the coast in off- shore wind fields. It has a transport capacity of up to 6,500 tons (tdw) andcan work safely in water depths of up to 45 metres. Thanks to its self-loading ca- pacity and jacking system, which keeps it stable even in choppy seas, it can work fast and reliably. The type 187 special ship is 139m long and 38m wide. It has adraft of 5.7m and a speed of 12 knots.The Neuenfelder Maschinenfabrik (NMF) will equip the ship with an off- shore special crane which can lift a 900-ton load with a reach of 30 metres andwork at a height of about 120 metres above the water. The jack-up vessel will accommodate 74.May 2012www.marinelink.com 47Sietas Starts on Van Oord Offshore Wind Jack-Up Berthold Brinkmann, receiver, Peter de Ridder, COO of Van Oord and Rüdi- ger Fuchs, agent for the receiver (from left) gave the go-ahead for the production start of the jack-up vessel at the Sietas shipyard in Hamburg. BelowSteel sections for the jack-up vessel inthe Sietas shipbuilding hall.MR May 12 # 6 (42-49):MR Template 5/7/2012 2:53 PM Page 47