Vroon holds naming ceremony for new subsea support vessel

Dutch provider of offshore support vessels, Vroon, has named the newest addition to its fleet in a ceremony held on Friday, December 8.

Vroon said last Saturday that the new member of the fleet, the VOS Stone, was named in Rotterdam by Ingrid van Driel, Vroon’s group controller.

VOS Stone, like its sister vessel VOS Start, is a subsea-support walk-to-work vessel, purpose-built to support offshore operations in the renewables industry and walk-to-work projects in the oil & gas industry.

The vessel was launched in June this year and delivered to Vroon by Fujian Southeast Shipbuilding, China, the following month. After undergoing final outfitting works in the Netherlands, VOS Stone is now ready to begin operations in the North Sea.

Both the VOS Stone and VOS Start are equipped with a motion-compensated offshore gangway and a 50T active-heave-compensated crane. A covered warehouse on the main-deck level allows the vessel 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 engage in subsea-support operations.

The vessel can carry a total of 87 persons, offering accommodation and workspace for up to 27 crew members and 60 workers with Wi-Fi connection and recreation facilities which include a cinema and a gym.

The first job awarded to the VOS Stone will be outside the oil and gas sector. The vessel has already been awarded a contract by VBMS to support inter-array cabling operations at the Arkona Offshore Windfarm during the first half of next year. In the summer of 2018, the vessel will undertake similar operations for E.ON, working on commissioning operations at the same windfarm.