TSHD Anchorage Launched in Harlingen

Thecla Bodewes Shipyards launched the 3000m³ trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) Anchorage in Harlingen last Friday.

This dredger is equipped with a smart diesel-electric system, developed in close collaboration between Barkmeijer Shipyards and D&A Electric, that efficiently regulates the energy supply for sailing, dredging and unloading the ship.

As a result, energy and fuel consumption is optimized and the ship’s emissions are greatly reduced.

For the control and monitoring of the dredging process, Barkmeijer Shipyards in collaboration with some of the Netherlands leading system specialists, has developed an intelligent automation package to not only provide high dredging performance but enable the dredging, sailing and maintenance operations to be handled by a limited crew of only 7-8 members.

This TSHD has been built especially for extracting sand and gravel at sea, with a capacity of 3,000m³ per hour.

An underwater pump, mounted in the suction pipe, brings the sand / gravel mixture to a sieve, which separates the sand and gravel and deposits the the preferred cargo into the hopper (cargo hold of the dredger) and discharges the unwanted material back into the sea. Then during the trip to the port of discharge, the water is removed from sand or gravel, so that the cargo can be unloaded “dry” by the ship’s onboard ship-to-shore discharge system.

This dredger has a length of 105.90 meters, is 15.85 meters wide and has a draft of 6.94 meters with ample accommodation on board for 14 crew members.

It was developed in the Netherlands and built in collaboration with Dutch suppliers, mainly from the north of the Netherlands.

The design and construction of the dredger, build number 347, was undertaken by Barkmeijer Shipyards in Stroobos, part of the Thecla Bodewes Shipyards Group. In April 2019 the hull was towed to their shipyard in Harlingen, where the ship was completed by order of De Hoop Terneuzen B.V.