Truly Dutch: TSHD Anchorage delivered to De Hoop Terneuzen

The 3.200m³ trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) Anchorage was successfully delivered to the Zealand based company De Hoop Terneuzen earlier this month. The design and construction of the dredger, build number 347, was undertaken by Barkmeijer Shipyards in Stroobos, part of the Thecla Bodewes Shipyards Group.

Barkmeijer Shipyards and Thecla Bodewes Shipyards have over 300 years of shipbuilding experience between them. The success of this project has been possible due to the close cooperation between Barkmeijer and Thecla Bodewes Shipyards.

The four shipyards of the Thecla Bodewes Group complement each other, as a group can actually build all types of ships: from simple push boats to complicated and state of the art dredgers such as the Anchorage.

According to Thecla Bodewes Shipyards, the design of the sand and gravel dredger is based on dry discharge either by a shore based crane or a self-unloading installation. The suction tube with a maximum dredging depth of 60m is equipped with a submerged dredge pump.

De Hoop Terneuzen owns several dredgers, including the Barkmeijer built vessel called “Ruyter”. The dredged raw materials are both used for processing in their own facilities or to be delivered to clients.

The design brief for the dredger was rather comprehensive. Without limits to the navigation area, the design has to be able to dredge sand and gravel up to a depth of 60 metres, screening this to the required grain size and dry discharge to shore in ports with a great variety in receiving facilities.

An extensive study of the ports in Northwestern European mainland and the UK considering limitations in length, beam, water depth, air draught and port facilities made for an optimized design. Not many aggregate dredgers are able to fulfill this combination of requirements.

The dredger’s design is characterized by a high freeboard for operations at the high seas. No bottom doors are foreseen, as the intention of this vessel is to unload the aggregates ashore. The ship is laid out at a loaded speed of fourteen knots, which is quite fast for a dredger, in order to reduce the transfer time between the deeper concessions and the discharge ports.

High manoeuvrability is obtained by two azimuth thrusters and a tunnel type bow thruster. A telescopic spud pole mooring system has been installed, extending 19 meters under the ship’s bottom, for easy positioning during discharge operations.

The dredger has been designed with state of the art technology. The hull of was designed by and built at Barkmeijer in Stroobos. The hull shape is optimized for sailing at both loaded and unloaded draught by Computational Fluid Dynamics calculation.

Anchorage is equipped with a smart diesel-electric system, developed in close collaboration between Barkmeijer Shipyards and D&A Electric, that efficiently regulates the energy supply for sailing, dredging and unloading the ship.

The use of the E-prop® electric propulsion increases the overall propeller efficiency, where, as a result, energy and fuel consumption is optimized and the ship’s emissions are greatly reduced.

The dredger is powered by three Mitsubishi SU medium speed diesel generator sets. Two of 2550 eKW each and one of 1275 eKW. The gensets are able to run all three parallel, or twin, or single, depending on the required power for each specific operation, for instance: dredging and sailing, discharging, or just sailing.

The different setups of the gensets ensure the most efficient load of the gensets which results in the lowest possible fuel consumption.

For the control and monitoring of all ship’s systems and the dredging process, Barkmeijer Shipyards collaborated with Alewijnse Marine. They have developed an integrated intelligent automation package. This PLC based Alarm, Monitoring & Control System with 26” SCADA HMI workstations includes the remote control of engine room systems, ventilation, lighting and the hydraulic equipment related to the dredging installation.

The PLC system provides the control logic, alarm logic and interlocks in the system. For monitoring of the drag arm and the performance of the dredging process a Dredge Control System module is integrated with a large number of sensors in the dredge system.

TSHD Anchorage was developed and built in the Netherlands in collaboration with Dutch suppliers, mainly from the northern part of the Netherlands.

In April 2019 the hull was towed to their shipyard in Harlingen, where the final outfitting, electrical works, installation of all engine room equipment, dredging equipment, technical spaces and pump room was done.