SMST Subsea Cranes for Vroon’s Newbuilds

SMST has delivered its 50t subsea knuckle boom crane with active heave compensation to Vroon for its newbuild vessel VOS Start. 

This crane for VOS Start and the identical crane for sister vessel VOS Stone are the fifth and sixth offshore cranes SMST delivers to Vroon.

The 80m VOS Start arrived at Damen Shiprepair Oranjewerf on June 1 from its build yard in China for the installation of a motion-compensated gangway system – the first of its kind – by Barge Master and Bosch Rexroth, the extended installation of a Kongsberg reference system (including a ‘windfarm module’), and an active heave-compensated crane from SMST.

“By installing the SMST knuckle boom crane, Vroon increases the operational flexibility of both VOS Start and VOS Stone. Besides that the full active heave compensated crane can be used for all kind of subsea work, it can also be fitted with a motion compensation knuckle module to perform 3D compensated lifts up to 5t,” SMST explained.

In the eight weeks the vessel also underwent a wide range of other upgrades and preparations for her first charter with MHI Vestas Offshore Wind.