On Thursday 3rd May 2018 a group of 14 Cigre-UK NGN members travelled to the Netherlands for a unique opportunity to visit Boskalis’ Giant 7 cable barge.
The day started with technical presentations at Boskalis’ offices in Vlissingen where attendees were able to learn about subsea cable installation and repairs, and the interesting challenges faced. This was followed by an introduction to some of Boskalis’ past and present projects as well as a visit to their storage site at Vlissingen port where there was the opportunity to see the newly-built BS-III trenching tool .
In the afternoon, the group travelled to Rotterdam where the Giant 7 barge was docked. The barge was being made ready for service and this allowed a great opportunity to explore and to understand the amount of work that goes in behind the scenes before the cable and trenching tool can be brought on board.
We would like to thank all of our attendees for their enthusiasm and questions throughout the day, and of course the team at Boskalis for their hospitality and especially for letting us stay on board for an extra couple of hours due to the interest and number of questions! Special mention goes to Hans Veth and Jack Wattel at Boskalis and to Tony Zymelka from ESCA (European Subsea Cables Association)/BBP Cables for their support in the organisation of this unique and fantastic event.
Following this success, we hope to add another cable ship visit to our 2020 events calendar so watch out for information on this soon!