Aeolus is Van Oord’s premier jack-up offshore installation
vessel, and is the cornerstone of many of its offshore wind farm construction projects. To ensure that this vessel remained a top competitor in the ever-advancing offshore wind market, the decision was made to perform a major upgrade of the vessel’s main crane. The old 900-t-capacity crane was removed and replaced with a 1600-t-capacity crane, the largest in its class.

To have the rest of the vessel reflect the impressive upgrade to the main crane, sponsons and an extra strength deck were added to the hull. This not only increased the vessel’s strength, but also its transportation capacity. To carry the higher loads when elevated, the feet of the jack-up legs, or spudcans, were increased in size. Finally, to improve accessibility to the vessel, a helideck and extra accommodation unit were added.

DEKC Maritime was closely involved in the conversion process of Aeolus from a very early phase. This involvement began with the initial feasibility studies towards upgrading the main crane. Once the direction of the conversion began to take shape, more detailed and sophisticated analyses were performed on the strength, stability, and capacity of the vessel. Extensive use of FEM and CFD analyses were used during this process. After class approval, the entire detail engineering and production fairing process was also performed.

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