The vessel sailed almost immediately to Cadiz in Spain, where it is now dredging the access area to a new 451m long quaywall currently under construction. Uilenspiegel will then backfill the area behind the quaywall to create a 5 hectare quayside working area. With subsequent projects to follow in Italy, Germany and Belgium, the dredger has over a year of European commitments already booked.

Uilenspiegel is a sister ship of the 1999 built Lange Wapper but incorporates further enhancements of the earlier vessel's bulbous bow and broad beam 'U' shaped hull form. This hull form has evolved from earlier 'V' forms following a ruling by Belgian authorities that dredgers working on the River Schelde must have a moulded depth of 8m or less in order to minimise wash disturbance along the river bank and to other vessels. The resulting progression of newbuilds which began with the Antigoon have sought to optimise an equation balancing loading capacity and shallow draft with manoeuvrability.

Uilenspiegel would appear to have hit that target, with a loaded running speed slightly faster than Lange Wapper at 15.7 knots using the same propulsion system.

Hull refinements give the new vessel a slightly greater load capacity also, at 21,529 tonnes.

The DEME Group has recently scrapped some 10,000m 3capacity, the Uilenspiegel 3capacity in older 'V' hulled dredgers which could not comply with the 8m draft limitation.

At 142.8m length overall and 13,700m would have been the world's largest dredger less than a decade ago and is a substantial vessel to be manoeuvring within the confines of European ports, but such precision and thus operational flexibility is made possible by new computer software developed by electronic engineers at DEME's Newbuilding Division together with those at IHC Systems.

This integrates all dredging, navigation and surveying systems, with dynamic positioning/ dynamic tracking (DP/DT) allowing the programming of fully automated dredging tasks which take account of tide and current.

Uilenspiegel will dredge to depths of 50m through a single trailing suction pipe on the port side with an internal diameter of 1,200mm. A massive 6m wide draghead injects water into the material to be dredged at a speed of 210km per hour for significantly enhanced productivity, especially when dredging compacted soils. The environmentally friendly vessel dredges without overspill and a low design density in the hopper (the ratio between loading capacity and hopper volume) leaves it well suited for dredging contaminated spoil.

The vessel's reduced draft enables dumping in relatively shallow dumping areas. Before dumping through two rows of box-shape double bottom doors, the draft of the vessel can be decreased by opening four pre-dumping doors with ducts in the cellular keel.

The ?60m cost of building the Uilenspiegel takes the DEME Group's investment in new plant to over ?500,000,000 in the last five years and reflects the company's confidence in the continuing good health of the international dredging market. DEME Group Managing Director Marc Stordiau told a press conference prior to festivities that significant new contracts were in the pipeline but would not reveal where.

MJ Information No: 17718