We have welcomed Vroon Offshore Services B.V. to PES before, as a leading provider of support vessels for the wind industry (and others). But as Niek Spiljard explains in this illuminating interview, the company is committed to taking its offerings to the next level and asserting its place in the market.
PES: There is a growing need for Subsea-Support Vessels (SSVs) to be more adaptable and to offer a wider range of capabilities. Can you explain a little about how your new vessels meet these demands?
Niek Spiljard: Vroon Offshore Services (VOS) offers services in the Oil & Gas market segments and support the installation and maintenance of offshore wind farms and other renewable-energy market segments.
Our vessels are used for diverse operations in a variety of offshore sub-segments, including wind-farm support, walk-to-work (W2W) and IRM duties. SSVs were historically used for dive services and fitted with dive spreads and ROVs. Today, we offer our ships for dive and ROVs, matrass laying, cable trenching, boulder removal, repair and maintenance, generator refuelling, W2W services and many more.
In order to accommodate all these different types of equipment, we have opted for flexibility. Our new “compact SSVs” VOS Sugar and VOS Star have large deck space, sufficed accommodation, satellite domes and active-heave compensated cranes.
Clients and subcontractors provide more and more containerised systems and our vessels allow for quick mobilisation and project solutions. This will allow our company and fleet to quickly adapt to new and changing requirements.
PES: How much of a difference does heave compensation have on a craft’s workability – and length of time spent – in the field?