Cork based Irish Mainport Holdings have signed a long term charter with a new customer, N-Sea for the provision of a newbuild hybrid survey and ROV support vessel, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Ongoing discussions of recent months between Mainport and N-Sea based in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, have also led to Irish marine company’s signing of the newbuild contract with shipbuilder Neptune Construction B.V. The also Dutch based company has shipyards in Aalst, Groningen and Hardinxveld from where the later yard is where the newbuild will be launched.
The 41.2m newbuild to be named Geo Master is based on the proven design of the Geo Ranger, which is currently owned and operated by N – Sea. The new vessel is to have similar equipment, with a construction period scheduled to take around 12 months.
Geo Master will be a new and important contribution to the growth ambitions of the sub-sea solutions provider N-Sea Group, as the newbuild will be upgraded to meet the latest standards. This involving fuel efficiency and emissions but is also able to run on bio-fuel.
According to Mainport, the development will present a pleasant change for their technical team to oversee a new construction in Europe, as previous new builds among them Geo Edge took place in the Far East. As mentioned the new ship will be built at the Dutch shipyard in Hardinxveld-Giessendam with a scheduled delivery for the first quarter of 2026 and be operational by mid-March.
As part of Mainport's long-term charter agreement, N-Sea will have the survey and ROV support vessel under full commercial management and control. In addition Afloat notes the new ship will be Dutch flagged.
