Last Thursday, Damen Shipyards Gorinchem hosted the DAMEN group’s third annual Workboat Festival. The event brought together over 200 customers, media and industry partners, and 34 workboats, for an afternoon of presentations, demonstrations, product displays and interactive exhibits.
The workboats ranged in size from ten-metre Stan Launches and Stan Tugs up to a 72-metre Stan Pontoon. In between were Fast Crew Suppliers, Stan Pilots, Stan Patrols, additional Stan Launches and Tugs, plus an Interceptor and a RHIB. All were available for onboard inspections and some took guests out on to the water for demonstrations, including the high-speed craft.
A number of DAMEN suppliers were also present, covering specialist sectors including engines and other machinery, electrical integration and automation, and propulsion. Representatives from Alewijnse, Alphatron, DBR, Emigreen, MTU, Pon, Radio Holland, Reintjes, Rolls Royce, RotorTug, Schottel, Veth and Volvo were all manning stands and happy to discuss their products and services. Other attractions included a reversed sailing challenge arranged by André de Bie.
Damen Shipyards Group
Damen Shipyards Group operates 35 shipbuilding and repair yards, employing 12,000 people worldwide. DAMEN has delivered more than 6,000 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers some 160 vessels annually to customers worldwide. Based on its unique, standardised ship-design concept DAMEN is able to guarantee consistent quality.
Damen’s focus on standardisation, modular construction and keeping vessels in stock leads to short delivery times, low ‘total cost of ownership’, high resale values and reliable performance. Furthermore, DAMEN vessels are based on thorough R&D and proven technology.
Damen offers a wide range of products, including tugs, workboats, naval and patrol vessels, high speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, vessels for the offshore industry, ferries, pontoons and superyachts.
For nearly all vessel types DAMEN offers a broad range of services, including maintenance, spare parts delivery, training and the transfer of (shipbuilding) know-how. DAMEN also offers a variety of marine components, such as nozzles, rudders, winches, anchors, anchor chains and steel works.
Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC) has a worldwide network of eighteen repair and conversion yards of which twelve are located in North West Europe. Facilities at the yards include more than 50 floating and (covered) drydocks, the largest of which is 420 x 90 metres, as well as slopes, ship lifts and indoor halls. Projects range from the smallest simple repairs through Class’ maintenance to complex refits and the complete conversion of large offshore structures. DSC completes around 1,300 repair and maintenance jobs annually, both at yards as well as in ports and during voyages.