New Van Oord cable layer going to Norway for finishing touches

Van Oord’s new cable-laying vessel Calypso is en route to the VARD Brattvaag yard in Norway for construction finishing, following its launch at the VARD Tulcea shipyard in Romania last week.

Van Oord placed an order with VARD for the 131-meter-long vessel at the end of 2020 as part of the strategy to strengthen its position in the offshore wind market.

The keel laying for the cable layer took place in December last year.

According to the Dutch company, construction is progressing well on schedule and Calypso is expected to be operational from the end of 2023.

Calypso, which will be Van Oord’s second-cable laying vessel in addition to the Nexus, will feature a large battery pack, a shore supply connection, and an energy management system, which are expected to reduce CO2, NOx, and SOx emissions.

With a total cable-carrying capacity of 8,000 tons, the DP2 vessel will be equipped with a below-deck cable carousel and a second carousel on deck.

Besides the possibility to run on biofuel, the hybrid vessel has future fuel-ready engines with built-in flexibility to anticipate e-fuels, the Dutch company said.

It will mainly be deployed to install inter-array and export cables for offshore wind projects, including HVDC cables.

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