Less than a month after jack-up vessel Voltaire departed China, Jan De Nul’s heavy lift vessel Les Alizés has left the CMHI Haimen Shipyard in China and is currently also heading for Europe.

Jan De Nul said the vessel has been delivered by the shipyard on January 16 and has departed the yard in the morning of January 19. Les Alizés is specifically designed for loading, transporting, lifting and installing offshore wind turbine foundations. The main features are a main crane of 5,000 tons, a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tons and a deck space of 9,300 square metres.

With these characteristics, the vessel can easily transport the heavier future foundations, several in one trip, to the offshore installation site, with direct benefits in planning, fuel consumption and emissions reduction. Les Alizés is a crane vessel for floating installation, which means that she is not dependent on the water depths and the seabed conditions.

Les Alizés’ maiden voyage sets sail to the port of Gdansk in Poland where she will be prepared for her first mission in Germany: the transport and installation of 107 monopile foundations and one offshore substation topside at Ørsted’s Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farms.