Keel laid for Prysmian’s new cable-laying vessel

Prysmian and Vard have held the keel-laying ceremony for Prysmian’s new 171-meter cable-laying vessel which is set to start commercial operations by April 2025.

The new vessel is identical to the Leonardo da Vinci, which was designed with input from Prysmian’s technicians and engineers.

Prysmian executives traveled to the Vard shipyard in Tulcea, Romania, on 5 April for the keel laying ceremony.

According to the company, the highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of three “good luck” coins – a euro, a Norwegian kroner and a Romanian leu – which represent the vessel’s three home countries, including Italy, where Prysmian’s headquarters are, Norway, Vard Group’s home country, and Romania, where Vard’s shipyard in Tulcea is located.

The coins were mounted onto a plaque and will sit in the vessel’s command center.

Both the new CLV and the Leonardo da Vinci are said to be the only installation vessels in the world with two rotating platforms of 7,000 and 10,000 tons, bringing the total capacity up to 14,000 tons to ensure the highest carousel capacity in the market.

They both have a 100-ton capstan to allow for extreme deep-water installation of the heavy cables needed for the energy transition, Pyrsmian said.

For the new vessel, Prysmian has doubled the hybrid propulsion battery capacity to 3.0 MW in order to reduce emissions and consumption, and improve its overall eco-friendliness.

Prysmian’s fleet currently consists of five cable-laying vessels, including Giulio Verne, with a track record of about 35 years, Cable Enterprise, mainly used for installation of offshore wind export cables, Ulisse, a barge for shallow-water installation, Barbarossa, a small barge recently added to the fleet and designed for operations in very shallow water and intertidal zones, and Leonardo da Vinci.