DeepOcean, in corporation with Maersk Supply Service, held a naming ceremony for the Maersk Connector in Newcastle, UK.

The vessel was named by a godmother Haydee Noemi Castillo Diaz de Boyde, the wife of DeepOcean’s commercial director Pierre Boyde.

Pierre Boyde said: “We are extremely proud to have shared this ceremony with our partners and clients. The Maersk Connector is the most advanced power cable lay vessel in the world and the only vessel of her type that can go right up to the beach and go aground fully loaded with cable. It can install a power cable in a single length from the beach to the offshore wind farm, enabling increased reliability and reducing cost for the system operators. The vessel will be used to install the export cables of the Walney Extension wind farm in the UK followed by the Nemo Link interconnector project.”

The Maersk Connector, owned by Maersk Supply Service, was built by Damen, and is on long term charter to DeepOcean.

Maersk Supply Service’s chief operating officer, Soren Karas, said: “The name giving ceremony celebrates a very successful collaboration between DeepOcean and Maersk Supply Service. We look forward to working with DeepOcean to demonstrate this vessel’s unique capabilities.”

The ceremony was held at A&P Tyne in Newcastle where work to install the duel concentric 7000 tonne split capacity basket carousel, loading arms and associated cable handling equipment is nearing completion.