Vroon has christened its new subsea-support walk-to-work (W2W) vessel VOS Stone at a ceremony held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
After undergoing final outfitting works in the Netherlands, VOS Stone is now ready to support inter-array cabling operations at the 385MW Arkona offshore wind farm during the first half of next year.
In the summer, the vessel will also undertake logistics support and offshore accommodation on the wind farm on behalf of E.ON.
The W2W vessel, named by Ingrid van Driel, Vroon Group Controller, was delivered to the company by Fujian Southeast Shipbuilding of China in July.
VOS Stone and its sister vessel VOS Start, currently employed at the Walney Extension wind farm, are both equipped with a motion-compensated offshore gangway and a 50T active-heave-compensated crane, and were purpose built to support offshore operations in the renewable industry and W2W projects in the oil & gas industry.
The new vessel provides accommodation for up to 60 personnel, fully equipped office space, Wi-Fi connection and recreation facilities that include a cinema and a gym.
According to Vroon, a covered warehouse on the main-deck level enhances its versatility to perform cargo handling and passenger transfers to and from offshore assets, such as wind turbines, offshore platforms or crew transfer vessels, as well as to engage in subsea-support operations.