After an extensive midlife upgrade, the Dutch pilot vessel Cetus has successfully completed her first pilot transfers. The transfers took place during vessel manoeuvrability and acceleration testing on the Westerschelde estuary off the coast of Vlissingen on 25 November 2016.
The Cetus is a twin-hulled SWATH vessel operated by Loodswezen, the Dutch Maritime Pilot’s Association. While the reasons for the upgrade were numerous, one important element was to optimise the overall responsiveness of the propulsion system.
Speaking after the pilot transfer operations, one of the captains of the Cetus, Peter Willeboordse, spoke about his experience with the renewed propulsion system: “The response time between the bridge and the reaction of the ship is much faster. This allows for more precise manoeuvres, which, considering the safety of the pilot on the ladder, is of great importance.”
Nautim, the Netherlands-based maritime technical office, has led the engineering and project management of the Cetus midlife upgrade. “This has been a very rewarding project, utilising new products and technologies that were not available when the vessel was originally built. We have been able to optimise several of the ship’s systems.”