The ceremony was performed by Olympic, World and European Champion heptathlon Nafi Thiam. 

 

One of the exceptional features of the Apollo are its extremely long lattice legs of 106.8 m, which allow the vessel to jack-up in water depths up to 65 m. The vessel is equipped with an 800-tonne, leg-encircling crane and has an unobstructed, spacious 2000 m² deck with a load carrying capacity of 15 t/m².

 

CEO Luc Vandenbulcke, who actually started his career in the port of Zeebrugge, said in his speech that DEME Offshore already has a full order book for Apollo with a variety of projects in both the renewables and oil and gas market. The vessel will now be mobilised for installing 300 pre-piles at the Moray East offshore wind farm in the UK. And after that the next challenge will be the installation of turbines for the Seamade offshore wind farm project. “Actually we cheated you a little bit,” he admitted. “In the months before this official christening ceremony the Apollo already executed several projects for the oil,- gas and windindustries. Amongst others she has successfully decommissioned the Halfweg platform for Petrogas and installed a small gasinstallation.”

 

“Asking the heptathlon champion Nafi Thiam as the godmother of our newest vessel is a conscious choice,” told Hugo Bouvy, Managing Director of DEME Offshore to OER. “Being a champion in the seven disciplines of the heptathlon are a real test of strength, endurance and versatility. These are features we also recognise in the vessel and crew of Apollo. This versatile vessel will serve the offshore wind industry, but will also provide services to the oil and gas industry, with a particular focus on the installation and decommissioning of platform facilities.”

 

Hoppe Ship Agencies is acting as agent for account of DEME at the Belgian Coast.

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