Royal IHC has completed the sea trials of the two 3500-m3 split hoppers Bengel and Deugniet for DEME Group. Once completed, DEME says the vessels will work along its giant cutter suction dredger Spartacus.
The Bengel (yard number 1305, imo 9865611) and Deugniet (yard number 1306, imo 9865623), whose names basically mean “rascal”, were part of DEME’s investment programme. This programme also included the hopper dredger River Thames (yard number 1304, imo 9865714) and trailing suction hopper dredger Meuse River (yard number 1307, imo 9866988).
All vessels were designed by Royal IHC, but only the Meuse River was built at IHC in Krimpen aan den IJssel, the Netherlands. The other vessel were built at PaxOcean PT Graha Trisaka Industri on the Indonesian island of Batam. The Bengel and Deugniet were launched on 21 February and 9 March 2020. Delivery was originally planned for April 2020, but has clearly suffered delays.
Split hoppers are generally deployed in dredging operations in combination with other large cutter suction and backhoe dredgers. They are praised for their ease and speed of unloading.
