The Blue Queen arrived in Delfzijl from Norway in late 2017. This standard PX121 Platform Supply Vessel (PSV) then spent the next 12 weeks being whipped into shape by Dutch shipyard Royal Niestern Sander, working on behalf of Wagenborg Offshore. Converted into a dedicated Walk-to-Work Emergency Response and Rescue Vessel, the PSV – renamed the Kasteelborg – was delivered on schedule in March 2018. It was a challenging conversion project in which time and planning played a major role.
Over an intense nine-month period, Royal Niestern Sander Shipyard firmly took on the Arctic Sunrise in a refit project. During the extensive overhaul, nearly all of the accommodation and work areas of this Greenpeace vessel were renewed, granting the vessel at least another 15 years of service. Director Bart Volgers looks back on this successful project.
The offshore support vessel Serkeborg, sailing in the Wagenborg Offshore fleet, will play a crucial role during subsea diving- and maintenance work at an oil terminal. For this long term contract, Wagenborg Offshore commissioned Royal Niestern Sander to convert Serkeborg into a so called diving support vessel. At the yard, Marc van Dijk gives an insight into this project.
At the end of 2006, Niestern Sander received an inquiry from Seabird Exploration in Dubai for the conversion of a supply vessel to a seismic survey vessel. A delegation from Niestern Sander paid a visit to the ship to orientate itself on this request. Apparently the visit made a good impression: a few weeks later the owner visited the shipyard in Delfzijl. The contacts resulted in a contract.
The increasing activity in Russian Arctic waters has been noted by Royal Niestern Sander. The yard was approached to carry out a complicated conversion of two dry cargo vessels. The ‘Arctica 1’ and ‘Arctica 2’ were to be converted for use in extreme winter temperatures and conditions. Thanks to the shipyard’s extensive knowledge in the area of ice-strengthened ships – as was previously apparent from the series construction of ice-strengthened dry cargo ships and the specialist icebreakers ‘Sanaborg’ and ‘Serkeborg’ – Niestern Sander was successful in winning this particular conversion project.
The first contact with Royal Niestern Sander for this special conversion was made by the end of 2019. Mr. D.W. den Herder, owner of Maritiem BV, approached Niestern Sander with a request to make a quotation for the conversion of the Yed Prior, then a container ship called GERD, to a gravel hopper dredger for Spaansen. Originally, Spaansen had nothing to do with shipping, but the company now has its own fleet.
