DUC Marine Group, the Dutch-based specialist in diving, marine and offshore construction services, will christen its new multi-purpose support vessel “Solution”, on May 9, at Urk, The Netherlands.

According to the company, the new vessel has been purpose built for DUC Marine Group with aim to fill a gap in the offshore renewables and oil and gas construction and maintenance industry.

“The vessels in our fleet are employed year-round, so we have had to charter additional vessels for our projects”, a DUC spokesperson explains. “We found that current vessels are either too small with insufficient capacity and possibilities, or too big and therefore not cost-effective. So we decided to design a ship with exactly the right size, capacity, versatility and cost efficiency.”

DUC markets Solution as suited for operations such as, amongst others, buoy installations, SPM maintenance, bathymetric survey, soil investigations, UXO survey and clearance, cable removal, debris removal, grouting works and bubble curtain deployment.

The vessel is 55 metres long with a shallow draft of minimum 2.80 metres and maximum 3.50 metres. It accommodates 42 people with capacity for additional client offices on the vessel’s upper deck.

The construction of the vessel was managed by DUC, in close cooperation with architect Hernand Jansen, Shipcon Yard and Hoekman Yard.

MPSV Solution is scheduled to start its first assignment in the Baltic Sea following the christening ceremony.