A more unusual caller to the Port of Waterford, Afloat, has identified a Monaco based yacht transport company's heavy-lift vessel carrying a variety of leisure craft arrive on the Suir, writes Jehan Ashmore
The Dutch-flagged Eemslift Hendrika, operated by Star Class Yacht Transport with an address in Monte Carlo, serves the European market. On this occasion, its project cargo had berthed at the Irish port’s main terminal, Belview.
Unloading operations of the yacht carrier at Belview, downriver of Waterford City, is where stevedores routinely handle containers, bulk cargoes, feedstuffs, and cement materials. Other project cargoes were also recently handled from ships calling to involve power-modules and liquid storage tanks.
At 4,200 deadweight tons (dwt) and built in 2015 further research reveals Eemslift Hendrika is part of the Amasus Shipping fleet of Delfzijl, which also manages fleetmate Deo Volente (3,750dwt/2007) for the Monte Carlo company. Its founder and director, Jan te Siepe, moved to the principality in 2001 to establish his new company, Starclass Yacht Transport.
Both heavy-lift ships were converted into dedicated yacht carriers by extending the decks, the fitting of special loading equipment, and a self-designed certified cradle system optimized for yacht transport. Each vessel has two heavy lift cranes, with the Eemslift Hendrika having a lifting capacity of 330 tons, whereas the older ship has a 240-ton capability.
The ship’s name, Deo Volente, recalls Afloat’s coverage of its historic arrival to the Port of Galway in 2012 as the first container ship to be unloaded at the west coast harbour having departed Lisbon, Portugal. This call was to deliver logistics-related cargo in the form of a 'Pop Up' Village spectator stand used during the port's hosting of the Volvo Ocean Race Grand Finale.
A much more recent example of a project delivery voyage for the Meditteranean based operator took place in September with the delivery of motoryachts from Turkey to Nice. They were unloaded at the port so to particpate along the coast at the Cannes Yachting Festival.
In addition, Star Class Yacht Transport as a European yacht-carrier has a scheduled service between Bergen, Norway, and Fethiye, Turkey, which departs every three weeks. This involves 14 ports of calls, among them the Nice-Imperia run, linking the Côte d’Azur on the French Riviera and likewise of its Italian neighbour and to Istanbul, straddling both Europe and Asia.
