Innovative new dredger launched at Barkmeijer Shipyards

Earlier this week, Thecla Bodewes Shipyards held a launching ceremony for newbuild Dredger BN348, the sister vessel of trailing suction hopper dredger Anchorage.

TSHD Anchorage was successfully delivered to her owners De Hoop Terneuzen in 2020 while the handover of the newbuild BN348 is scheduled for April 2022.

Both TSHDs are designed to extract sand and gravel aggregates from the seabed. Each vessel has a single suction pipe and a hopper capacity of 3,000m³. These innovative vessels have a length of 105.90 meters, width of 15.85m and a draft of 6.94m.

The newbuilds are equipped with a smart diesel-electric system, developed in close collaboration between the shipbuilder 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 the shipbuilder, in collaboration with Alewijnse, 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.

Additionally, the vessel’s design is characterized by a high freeboard for operations at the high seas. No bottom doors are foreseen, as the intention of this vessel is to unload the aggregates ashore.

The design and construction of the dredgers was undertaken by Barkmeijer Shipyards in Stroobos, part of the Thecla Bodewes Shipyards Group.