Picture of the Day
Time has passed and websites come and go, and now I receive fewer photos from people in the business than I used to on the old site, but fortunately I've got a few years of unpublished images in stock, and here is one, the Thialf, the largest heavy lift vessel in the Heerema fleet. With the two cranes in tandem it can lift 14,200 tonnes. If you have not been close to any of these things you cannot appreciate the dimensions. They are enormous. I once carried a set of slings on a ship I commanded. They completely filled the deck.
Here is the VOS Dallas photographed recently in Malta which seems to be a frequent stopping place for the Vroon fleet as it makes its way from the Far East to Europe. So what about this fine vessel which bears the signs of Chinese construction? The full length bridge windows are a bit of a give-away, but other than that we know nothing. It has yet to appear on the Vroon fleet list, or else it is remotely possibly that it has recently been removed.
Here is the Grampian Dee crossing Aberdeen's Tidal Basin in 2015. The ship was built in 2012 in Spain from a design by Offshore Ship Designers and is one of six identical vessels. This ship is typical of modern ERRVs, or as we still probably know them, standby vessels. It looks fit for purpose and capable of fulfilling the number one standby vessel performance standard, the ability to survive out there in the North Sea winter.