Topmasts

8 September 2021

Topmasts

The next few months we will undertake a very large maintenance project replacing part of the hull. We have found a very suitable shipyard, Talsma, in Franeker. These people are looking forward to the job and you really need that for a project like this!

Franeker is located on the Van Harinxma Canal. Very handy for a shipyard. The only problem is that there are high voltage cables hanging above this canal, 30 meters from the water. The topmasts of the OOSTERSCHELDE reach about 34 meters above the water. That does not fit under the cables and so we lowered the topmasts.

In Harlingen, where we went through the lock onto the canal, we prepared this. We removed the yards already in Rotterdam.  In Harlingen a crane came to lift them up a bit so that we could knock out the pin on which the topmasts rest and then we could lower them. Now the topmasts are hanging down in a rope alongside the mast, waiting to be hoisted again when we have sailed back to Harlingen.

Now we are working hard on removing a part of the interior, a number of tanks and some technology from the ship so that the steel workers will have enough space to work.

More later, Greetings Jan