Neptune: The Most Powerful Jack-up Vessel

Jack up vessels, constitute an integral cog in the operations pertaining to offshore wind farm and wind farm installation in the high seas. The Neptune jack up vessel is a one-of-its-kind jack up ship, specially designed and built by the Dutch marine engineering and construction cumulate IHC Merwede for its Belgian owners and operators, GeoSea, an offshore specialisation ancillary of the DEME conglomerate.

Commissioned to be built in the year 2010, the structural designing of the Neptune makes it a one-off vessel with no comparisons of operational excellence to other existing offshore wind turbine installing ships.

This facet of the jack up vessel thus also effectively makes it the most powerful wind turbine installing vessel.

Vessel Characteristics and Technical Specifications

• The Neptune jack up vessel was constructed within a span of one-and-a-half years, from its date of keel laying, an accomplishment by itself
• Neptune vessel measures about 60 metres lengthwise with a breadth of about 40 metres with a depth of about six metres
• The auto-hoisting jack up vessel has two cranes – the primary crane with a lifting capacitance of about 600 tonnes and the ancillary crane with a lifting capacity of 10 tonnes

• The constructional consolidation of the primary crane with the vessel’s hull, make Neptune an ideal jack up vessel for myriad utilisations in the high seas, in addition to facilitating wind farm installation
• Equipped with a Grade II DPS (Dynamic Positioning System), the Neptune jack up ship has also been certified as a ‘Green Passport’ ship as per American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) classification

Put into operation in the month of September this year, the vessel’s deck space accounts for about 1,600 square metres with 10 tonnes per square feet. Four azimuth pushers, functioning by four engines powered by diesel, account for the vessel’s movement and constancy of position while on water. This thus adds to the singularity of the jack up vessel, making Neptune one of the rare auto-propelled offshore wind turbine installing ships.

Neptune jack up ship’s first operation involved the completion of the latter stages of an ongoing wind farm installation project in the high seas near the coast of Belgium. Post the completion of this project, the vessel will be utilised for offshore wind farm installing projects in the North Sea, nearer to the German waters.

Named for the Roman sea deity, the jack up ship Neptune symbolises the technological development to successfully harness the power of oceanic winds and tides, for many years and decades to come.

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