Damen Shipyards has delivered its first cutter suction dredger to be deployed in the Scandinavian market with a CSD450 going to Finland’s Vesirakennus Ojanen Oy.
The new dredger was delivered from stock in only a few weeks and has gone straight to work in the Port of Pori, where it is dredging to depths of 4.5m. Scandinavia is traditionally a market in which backhoe dredgers load dredged materials into barges. The Damen CSD450, which can dredge to depths of 14m, provides Vesirakennus Ojanen Oy with the advantage of continuous production va pipeline to designated disposal areas. The Damen CSD is well suited to harsh, icy conditions and to ports and rivers where siltation and stones are present. As a result, Damen CSDs are also active in the Arctic, Canada and Russia.
A major reason Vesirakennus Ojanen Oy chose a Damen CSD450 was its immediate availability from stock, allowing delivery within weeks of the order being made. Damen holds optional extras in stock. This vessel for Finland was customised with a day accommodation unit beneath the control cabin with capacity for four people. Also added was an anchor boom system. All options are ‘plug and play’, with the foundations already built into the vessel.
Another option included for Vesirakennus Ojanen Oy is a navigation package consisting of signal lights, deck lights and search lights. The package is important for operation in a country such as Finland which has limited daylight during the winter. Also chosen is a package for precision dredging and monitoring, with a production measurement system which enables the customer to keep comprehensively informed of dredger performance also available. To enable shallow water dredging this vessel is also equipped with a wedge piece which can be placed between the cutter unit and the ladder to guarantee the optimal cutter angle. Damen also carried out the dredger’s commissioning and trained the crew on site in Pori.
Vesirakennus Ojaneb Oy’s owner and director Sami Ojanen said: “Our company saw the CSD450 as the perfect fit technically and because of Damen’s technical support. The increased pumping distance provided by the new dredger also enables us to expand the range of projects we can carry out. We have also been surprised by the production potential of the CSD450 and its fuel efficiency per cubic inch. In addition to that, the CSD’s ease of operation was a deciding factor as well.”
Delivering the vessel to Finland was also a consideration. As Damen’s product director dredging Olivier Marcus explained: “All Damen CSD’s are dismountable, so it is easy to transport them. In this case the dredger could be transported to Finland in a very short time and when this job is completed it can easily be transported to the next project.”
By Larz Bourne
