In April an odd looking hull was transferred from the NMC Yard enroute to Feadship's Kaag yard. It is known as hull YN815 and not alot is known about this vessel as yet. It would be the first vessel of this type to be built by this particular yard. Word has it that it is being built as a support yacht to support an existing Feadship, the 78.5-meter "Hampshire II". The 71.2-meter vessel is nearly as big as the mothership rumoured to supported. The vessel will be completed at Feadship's Van Lent yard.
This one confused me. I don’t get why you would order a Feadship support vessel but it’s probably just an explorer design. Also, it doesn’t really look like she has a superstructure forward. I thought that was to come.
They just added the full pilot house. I’m still somewhat surprised Feadship built a support vessel given their marketing ploys. Also interesting to note, Hampshire II is now sporting a blue hull.
Yep. from the time I knew this vessel was going to be her support and saw the blue hull I was expecting Hampshire II to get repainted at some point.
I was not expecting those smoke stacks. After all the latest installations, she looks very commercial.
Some knob on the Feadship Instagram page was making a big deal about how their standards have slipped so far, given the quality of the fairing of her hull.... like it wasn't meant to be that way.
I am inclined to agree with the knob. Looking at the latest close up photos. That is really shocking. The worst hull I have seen. Not only the welds and seams, but the hull looks like it has been shrink wrapped on. You can see all the small squares of the frame work. It is indeed for a repeat customer. "owner’s brief for an industrial and highly functional exterior" Brand new build where they achieved the look of a conversion of a crappy old work boat. Or someone ran out of money. We all saw what happened with the 107 mtr Kleven. Got cheap on the hull, and then had to have it fully faired and repainted before he could sell it.
The owner certainly didn't ran out of money as he is, according to different publications, Britain's richest man. Perhaps this is what the owner was looking for.
When you spend more time on board looking out vs on the dock it's not a woo. My wife had this down pat years ago; When she catches a fish and it complains about our 40 year old hull finish, then we'll re-paint the boat. It serves the mission very well.
Whats that bright orange thing on the Bow Sprit. Is that a Harpoon Gun ? That would explain those chimneys. Rendering whale blubber can be real stinky. And those huge davits on the side make sense as well now. "Industrial finish." "Highly Functional." Yo Ho Ho. A whaling we will go. Actually. What's better. One whale or a dozen dolphin. ?
"Sherpa" is back at Feadship for maintenance. She is in the same shed as the new build 816. In the new shed it seems there was barely space enough to fit and they had to put her in on an angle to make her squeeze in.
I think feadship did what the client had asked them to do, but I have to say this is one of the bad examples of a support/shadow vessel that has been done from scratch for this exact purpose. I think it falls behind its Damen counterparts and way behind Hodor the support vessel for Lonian. Its a slow vessel that has to leave the mothership way before to setup at the next stop, its hull form and decks doesnt allow for much toy storage, its just not functional in my opinion.