After the accident with its 5000-tonne crane during the load test in May 2020, DEME’s new offshore installation vessel Orion 1 as well as its crane suffered considerable damage. In September, Liebherr stated it would repair the crane. It has now been revealed that the Gdańsk Remontowa Shiprepair Yard has been contracted to repair the ship.

The ship arrived in Gdansk on Friday, 26 March, reports Polish news channel TVN24. Grzegorz Landowski, communications director from Remontowa Holding, has told the news channel ten shipyards were in the race to win the contract. According to Landowski, ‘over 200 tonnes of steel will have to be replaced’. Repairs are expected to take four months.

Also read: New video shows breaking of installation vessel Orion’s crane hook

Orion accident

In May 2020, the Orion 1 was in the port of Rostock after having its 5000-tonne heavy-lift Liebherr crane installed. During the test load of the crane (35 metres outreach and 175 metres hoisting height), the hook collapsed with the result that the complete crane collapsed. The cause of the crane losing its load, was the crane hook, the stem of which broke during the test. Liebherr had ordered the crane hook from a third party, Dutch Ropeblock.

Liebherr said it would repair the crane, which would be ‘completed in the course of 2021‘. The HLC 295000 is the largest offshore crane Liebherr has ever manufactured. The crane was designed with the ever larger offshore wind energy farms in mind as well as the trend of dismantling disused offshore oil and gas platforms from which large and heavy parts have to be disassembled in open seas.

Also read: ‘Installation vessel Orion was whiplash proof, but its crane was not’

Picture by the Port of Rostock.