Damen outfits Multi Cat for shallow water dredging

OCTOBER 3, 2017 — Damen Shipyards Group has delivered a Multi Cat 1908 to Saudi Arabia’s Murjan Al-Sharq Marine Services. The company provides marine construction and maintenance, dredging, diving and subsea services.

The new Multi Cat, called Murjan 40, has been equipped with a 1,250 cu.m/hr capacity Damen DOP 250 submersible dredge pump that can be deployed for sand mining and maintenance dredging activities.

“By adding a DOP pump to a Multi Cat, we instantly have a dredge – but a dredge which can also undertake the full range of tasks the Multi Cat can do as well,” said Abdullah Natheer, Chairman of Murjan Al-Sharq Marine Services, speaking at the vessel handover at Damen Shipyards Hardinxveld.

The Murjan 40 has also been installed with a spud system that can be deployed in water depths of up to 10 m. This will make dredging operations considerably more straightforward as this removes the need for a complex, 4-point mooring system. For operations in deeper waters, the spud system can be extended.

Dredging operations will be accomplished by lowering the DOP pump into the water with the Multi Cat’s crane or A-frame. The crane will also be used to handle the spuds.

With the vessel’s first contracts already finalized, Mr. Natheer pointed to the benefits of combining the shallow draft of the Multi Cat with the dredging performance of the DOP pump.

“Shallow water dredging usually requires a lot of very sophisticated, expensive equipment,” he said.” A solution such as this represents a cost-effective alternative.”

“We can take on a wide range of specialist jobs with this vessel. We call this ‘surgical dredging’ because of the precision required,” said Murjan Al-Sharq Marine Services Vice President Chris Clark. “What’s more, the versatility of the Multi Cat means that we can also use it for other jobs such as transportation, towage, dive support, pollution control, anchor-handling.”