It concerns a ship with a 208 meter high crane. The ship is a frequent topic on social media in North, especially in the evenings. It is 58 meters longer than the highest point in the city, the Rembrandt Tower. From Tuindorp Oostzaan, the ship and the crane illuminate almost the entire neighborhood.
One Northerner is enthusiastic: “Those lights are nice, just like Christmas”, while another finds it a bit difficult at night. “When I go to sleep I have to close the blinds, otherwise the light shines straight into my eyes.”
The crane is on the 195 meter long ship that installs wind turbines at sea. At Damen Shiprepair, the ship is being finished so that it can transport and build wind turbines at sea. “It is the Windmover,” says Rick Lust, who is project leader of the work. “It is an installation vessel for wind turbines in the North Sea.
Thousands of tons of steel
The ship also has four serrated steel structures of about a hundred meters. Rick Lust: “These are the legs of the ship that are driven by 24 motors per leg, so that the ship is stable on the seabed.” The crane can thus hoist the parts for the installation of the wind turbines.
The ship, weighing thousands of tons, is now 18 meters above the water surface due to the work. The structures built here to transport the windmill parts are also not the lightest. This weighs 170 tons and the large one that will be lifted onto the ship next week weighs 270 tons. The crane can easily lift 400 tons of steel into the air.
