Keel Laying Ceremony for Seaway Ventus

Seaway 7’s new wind turbine installation vessel Seaway Ventus has reached its second significant build milestone with the laying of the keel. The occasion was marked this week with a keel laying ceremony which took place on Monday 6th June, at the China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) Haimen facility, Nantong, with the full Seaway 7 Site team present.

​​​​​​​’This is a very important and satisfying milestone for the Seaway Ventus construction project, marking the period where all the fabricated steel blocks are brought together like Lego, for assembly in the dry dock where the complete hull will be formed to create the ship’ said Torben Mikkelsen, Project Manager Newbuild vessels.

At the ceremony speeches given by Seaway 7’s Operational Superintendent, Mohsin Ali Khan, CMHI’s management and DNV all remarked on the great progress that has been made since the steel cutting on November 25, 2021, with all parties concerned working closely together to reach the keel laying on schedule, overcoming difficulties with construction and materials supply, caused by the outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 nationwide in China.

Torgeir Ramstad, EVP Vessels & Installation Delivery said: “The team at CMHI have worked extremely diligently to ensure that this milestone was achieved according to schedule, despite major disruption caused by Covid-19 restrictions in China. This is the next significant step in bringing our first wind turbine installation vessel to the market.

“When delivered, Seaway Ventus will be amongst the world’s most capable wind turbine installation vessels and is designed to the highest environmental standards, reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 20% compared to similar units. When building a vessel for the next 25 years, we need to go as far as technically possible now to make it future proof against new regulations and expectations from our clients and from the community”.