Historic heavy lift at Drydocks World

Drydocks World in Dubai recently set a new record when lifted the 10,000-tonne topside of the first gravity base of the semi-submersible and world’s largest offshore HVDC platform structure “DolWin Beta” to a height of 52.8 metres from the dock bottom. According to the yard this has never before been done onshore and in a dock.

Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman of Drydocks World & Maritime World said, – We have taken our engineering excellence to greater heights through this unique and remarkable feat. It is a significant first and speaks volumes of our strengths in terms of technical capabilities. I am sure that the future will bring even more challenging assignments and we will handle them with equal ease. This heavy lift is a hallmark anywhere in the world and in our involvement with offshore projects. In the months ahead we look forward to greater achievements in our operations, which will place us on par, if not ahead, with the best in the business.

The complex mating operation was carried out on “DolWin Beta” which is under construction at the shipyard. The environmentally friendly system will act as a 900 MW electricity transmission link that will connect offshore wind farms located at the DolWin wind farm area near Helgoland in the German sector of the North Sea. It will be managed by Aibel from Haugesund, Norway.

The German company TenneT Offshore has awarded the contract to ABB for the supply of power through the transmission link.

The heavy lift was part of the mating operation of the topsides with the substructure. The operation, which started on December 5, consisted of lifting topsides by strand jacks and floating the substructure in the dock and then carefully moving it under the lifted topsides. The topsides were then lowered under careful guidance subsequently locking with the substructure. Dedicated teams from Drydocks World, Aibel, ABB and TenneT worked relentlessly for months to achieve this engineering and docking spectacle.