Royal Schelde Expands Commercial Work

Royal Schelde is directing more effort toward the commercial shipbuilding market, as evidenced by the construction of the ferry Koningin Beatrix and a RoRo order from Commodore Shipping. The company is modifying one of the graving docks at its Scheldepoort shiprepair yard to accommodate vessels with beams of up to 92 ft. (28 m).

Scheldepoort was busy recently with the Sea Cat Scotland, first of a series of sea cat catamarans overhauled at Scheldepoort. Of the aluminum vessel's four waterjets, two were steerable. At Scheldepoort, the other two waterjets were also made steerable with new cabling and hydraulics. The four Ruston 16V main engines were overhauled, and stainless steel cold water pipes and a new lubricating oil cooler were installed in the engine room. The hull and paint system were repaired, the four aluminum stern tubes renovated, and the alignment of the propulsion units was checked and corrected. Schelde Services was involved in the overhaul of engine parts on Sea Cat Scotland; Schelde MT-Products did the propeller shaft pipe prefabrication and assembly work for the Sea Cat Scotland and the Sea Cat Boulogne, as well as making two Tfoil stabilizers; and Schelde Shipbuilding carried out drawing work for the aluminum constructions. Between naval and commercial work, the capacity of Schelde Shipbuilding will be utilized almost totally in the next few years. In addition to preparing for a Royal Netherlands Navy contract won in April for an amphibious transport ship, the company is presently finishing a project to build an eight-ship series of M-frigates, the last of which will be delivered to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1995, along with a naval supply ship.

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