Companies in the UK maritime sector are very important and loyal customers for Damen Shipyards. Since the 1970s, Damen has delivered an impressive 300+ ships to a high variety of customers and industries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Some ten to twelve vessels are currently under construction as well.
This article first appeared in SWZ|Maritime’s May 2024 Seawork special. It was written by SWZ’s editor-in-chief Antoon Oosting, swz.rotterdam@knvts.nl.
This makes the United Kingdom and Ireland ‘a very important market’ for Damen, says Frederik van der Linde, sales manager United Kingdom and Ireland, and one of the two permanent salespeople Damen has within its organisation in this market. In June, he is one of Damen’s hosts at the Seawork exhibition in Southampton. That will mark the 25th time in Seawork’s 25-year history.
‘Damen supported Seawork from the beginning as it’s a great way to get in contact with clients and industry people off the ground,’ says Van der Linde. He works on the UK market together with his colleague Mike Besijn with the support of colleagues at the shipyards and other offices.
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Dredging and offshore wind
The vessels that Damen delivers to clients in the United Kingdom and Ireland originally involved a lot of small workboats for the local dredging industry such as Stan Tugs, Pushy Cats, and other types of workboats. Later, these were supplemented by Shoalbusters and Multi Cats. With the rise of the offshore wind industry, Fast Crew Suppliers (Crew Transfer Vessels) also find their way to clients.
‘Our customers are spread throughout the UK and the Damen portfolio turned out to be very well suited to demand,’ Van der Linde explains Damen’s success in the UK market.
The UK government, including the UK Ministry of Defence, also appreciates Damen’s products. A recent noteworthy example is the 42-metre axe bow type XV Patrick Blackett (X01), an experimental ship used by the Royal Navy as a testbed for new technologies, including unmanned underwater and surface vehicles, and quantum navigation. Its namesake is Patrick Blackett, a Royal Navy veteran, and Nobel Prize-winning British physicist.
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Painted matte black
The Patrick Blackett is an adapted Fast Crew Supplier 4008 (FCS 4008), designed and built by Damen Group. It is painted matte black, rather than the Royal Navy’s standard Pusser’s Grey, complete with NavyX insignia on both sides of the hull. Its pennant, X01, is also uniquely highlighted in gloss paint and large QR codes are painted to either side of the superstructure, allowing smartphone users to scan them and view NavyX content. It is capable of speeds more than 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph), with a range of more than 3000 nautical miles (6000 km) at 20 kn (37 km/h).
The breakthrough to the UK government market was the delivery of four Stan Patrol 4207 patrol vessels in 2007 for British Customs and later the UK Border Force. This made British Customs the second customer for Damen for this type of vessel after the delivery of the Sea and Osprey in 2001 to the Dutch Coast Guard. And even though they are almost twenty years old, they are still doing very well.
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Damen Service Hub
Van der Linde: ‘We opened a Damen Service Hub in Southampton in 2021 with four full time FTEs including an ex-Royal Navy man and a technician.’ In doing so, the Damen Service Hub should help underpin the Damen ships in the UK as well as provide support with original construction drawings and maintenance instructions when docking, for example. The Damen Hub also offers its support to non-Damen ships.
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Larger ships
Damen Shipyards builds between six and nine vessels annually for UK clients. These have increasingly been larger vessels in recent years. Multi Cats nowadays range from 12 to 37 metres in length.
Two years ago, Damen delivered the second Marine Aggregate Dredger, a MAD 3500, to Hanson UK following an earlier one to Cemex UK Marine, for winning aggregates from the seabed for the construction industry. The MAD 3500 has a hopper capacity of 3500 m3.
In 2017 and in 2019, Damen delivered two Walk-to-Work Vessels to Bibby Marine, the Bibby Wavemaster 1 and Bibby Horizon. At that moment, the first purpose-built design Walk-to-Work Vessels for the offshore wind industry. Much success has also been achieved recently by Damen in the delivery of FCSs, also known as Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs), a catamaran for fast transport of technical personnel for the maintenance of offshore wind turbines.
‘In the construction of offshore wind farms, the UK industry is very advanced,’ Van der Linde says in clarification. Meanwhile, Damen has delivered over thirty FCSs to customers in the UK over the last fifteen years. One example is UK-based High Speed Transfers (HST), which started in 2018 with an order for the delivery of one FCS 2710, followed by three more very quickly.
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Orders keep coming in
Following Purus Wind’s acquisition of HST, three more FCS 2710 Hybrids were contracted at the end of 2022. An even larger follow-up order followed in March last year for eight new vessels: four Damen FCS 2710 Hybrids, three FCS 3210 Hybrid CTVs, and one 90-metre Construction Service Operation Vessel (CSOV). The FCS 3210s and the CSOV are equipped for ultra-low emission operations and have been designed to be upgraded to methanol-fuelled engines when the time comes.
The order is part of Purus Wind’s strategy to be a leading provider of low-carbon, offshore wind support vessels. The FCSs were initially built at the Damen yard in Singapore, but nowadays mainly at its yard in Turkey. The CSOV will be built in Vietnam.
According to Van der Linde, the order also contributes to Damen’s aim of becoming the most sustainable shipbuilder itself. Meanwhile, Damen also builds in the UK together with Coastal Workboats in Exeter, Devon. Two years ago, this allowed the UK yard to deliver a so-called Landing Utility Vessel (LUV) 2208 to an operator of salmon fish farms in Scotland’s Western Isles. An LUV has a large deck space for fish cages and nets. An LUV order has now also been booked from Penzance-based (Cornwall) Isles of Scilly Steamship Group, which will operate it as a freight vessel around the Isles of Scilly. Damen plans to have the yard in Exeter build two more LUVs on stock.
In August last year, Damen signed a contract with UK Dredging for the delivery of a Shoalbuster 2711 Water Injection Dredger (WID). Based on a proven design, the vessel nonetheless represents a unique and innovative approach to water injection dredging. UK Dredging, part of Associated British Ports (ABP), operates Britain’s largest dredging fleet. It already has a number of Damen dredgers and workboats, including two Multi Cat Plough Vessels. The company undertakes maintenance dredging in ABP’s ports, for which it typically operates a number of hopper dredgers. The WID will enable the company to extend the intervals in between hopper dredging operations, thereby considerably increasing efficiency.
The yard of Damen Hardinxveld is currently finishing two Damen multi-purpose Shoalbusters 2208 for Cory, one of the UK’s leading waste management and recycling companies, The vessels will be used to manoeuvre the barges that transport waste down the River Thames to Cory’s sorting facilities for either recycling or energy recovery. The new vessels will join four Shoalbusters 2208S that Cory Group bought ten years ago for the same purpose.
They will look similar to their counterparts, but will feature a wide range of updates and upgrades. These include being IMO Tier III compliant with compact selective catalytic reduction systems fitted to fuel-efficient MAN engines to minimise NOX emissions. The fender arrangement is also being upgraded to provide all-round protection to the topsides as they manage their barges.
‘This way, we built a longstanding relationship with our clients and the wider industry,’ Van der Linde states. ‘It’s always a joy to travel to the UK and cooperate closely on all sort of projects. We seem to have a lot in common, have nice conversations and know how to find each other.’
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Seawork exhibition
The Seawork show will have its 25th anniversary this year, where Damen will welcome its returning customers and relations with as much enthusiasm as 25 years ago. Many starting companies and captain-owners have visited the show and even purchased their first Damen workboat on the spot.
Unlike last year, when the X01 Patrick Blackett was moored at the Mayflower Park jetty during Seawork as a showcase of Damen’s capabilities, there will be no full-size Damen ships on display. Van der Linde: ‘Over the last few years, we always managed to bring ships. And we did try this time too, but the workboat market is doing very well now, and all available tonnage is needed.’
Priority for Van der Linde at the show is to show the progress Damen has made in making its vessels more sustainable. ‘For the FCS 2710 for example, we are looking at whether we can get a methanol option ready. We have calculated that the space for the tanks is there. All this fits into our roadmap to eventually get to delivering zero-emission ships,’ concludes Van der Linde.
Photo (top): The Patrick Blackett is an adapted Fast Crew Supplier 4008 (FCS 4008), designed and built by Damen Group and painted matte black (all photos by Damen).
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