A hoped for resolution to the dispute this year could see the world's jumbo fleet return to action on major land reclamation works in Singapore.

Oranje and Prins der Nederlanden have been specially designed for the dredging and transportation of sand and silt.

At 156m LOA, they are large enough to contribute significantly to projects such as those in Singapore but also small enough to undertake maintenance dredging at ports in Europe and elsewhere.

The new dredgers combine high carrying capacity with a relatively low shallow draught of 12.02m and can dredge to depths of 81.5m through a 1,000mm diameter suction pipe. Design demands for a high tonnage to volume ratio have resulted in deck space sufficient to allow gravity gantry installations for lowering and raising the suction pipe.

An innovative hopper shape needs fewer bottom doors than are usually required for rapid unloading. Damage stability is higher than required by international standards and the vessels have four control and monitoring systems; a dynamic positioning and dynamic tracking (DP/DT) which enables the ship to maintain a fixed position with extreme accuracy as well as a dredge control system, a hopper monitoring system, and an alarm and monitoring system.

Typical of dredgers of this size, which would have been the world's largest only a decade ago, Oranje hasinstalled power sufficient to light a small city. Some 19,500kW includes propulsive power sufficient to carry Oranje 's 27,480dwt maximum load at 16 knots.

Dutch dredging majors took a significant financial hit last year as a result of the Singapore dispute, with Boskalis announcing a ? 10mdrop in profits and 450 job losses worldwide while rival Van Oord, formed only last December in a merger between Van Ord ACZ and Ballast Ham Dredging, has announced it would cut 400 jobs.

MJ Information No: 19412