Over it's forty year history,
Heesen Yachts has developed
a reputation of building
extraordinary superyachts,
that have pushed the boundaries of
design, speed and efficiency.
But with project Cosmos they went
all out. By the time she is
ready for delivery in the
spring of 2022,
she will be the fastest and largest
aluminium yacht in the world.
Project Cosmos is a full aluminium,
fastest motoryacht in the world
based on a conventional
propulsion, so with four
engines, two gear boxes and two
controllable pitch propellers.
What this project meant for us,
is that we actually
had to grow the company,
and grow the organization,
because of the size of the
80 metre project.
By finalizing the preliminary design,
the engineering department
can start with the outcome
of the preliminary design.
After finalizing some drawings,
the production phase
took place in shed six.
The hull was constructed there.
Joining the hull and superstructure
of a superyacht,
is always an exciting event.
But it takes a lot of planning
and risk management.
Even for a standard sized yacht.
But for 80.07 meter project Cosmos
The engineers at Heesen had to
completely rethink the procedure
to make it happen.
Even though we are used to do
operations like this, joining a
hull and superstructure and putting
the main engines in place, the
size of the 80 metre makes this
operation very special, the
amount of cranes, the weight of
the boat and everything that
goes with it makes this
operation very special.
It's the sheer size, which makes it
special and we're looking at
the operation with four cranes
instead of the usual two, the
hull and superstructure for this
project, are both 300 tons, so
there's more than twice than
usual yacht.
The scale of the joining operation
meant Heesen was stepping
into unknown territory
and so the stakes were high.
Obviously, there were a lot of safety
risks involved in the project
We were driving around
with 300 tons of aluminium,
and it needs to be balanced on the
correct way on the vessel
and we were working with
a lot of cranes, they need to
hoist simultaneously and
of course, the environmental
condition like wind and rain
can be an influence as well.
For one man in particular, it was
an exciting but challenging day.
Michiel de Haas was responsible for
coordinating the whole procedure,
and it started by making
preparations two years earlier.
For project Cosmos we started
in a very early stage with the
preparations for the transport
of the hull, because it's a
very large hull, a very wide
hull and a very heavy hull.
So together with colleagues from
Naval pre-design, engineering
and production of course, we
sat down several times to make
an entire plan. How we are going to
transport her in a safe way to
the different locations and to
place the superstructure.
The joining operation begins in
shed six with the aluminium
fast displacement hull had been
built in around 15 months.
After weighing, it's moved on to two
remote controlled multi-wheelers
and then driven on
to a waiting barge.
To ensure stability during this
delicate balancing act,
the barge had to be
carefully ballasted.
Together with the transport
company, it took us almost half
a day to get the transport car,
with of course the hull onto
the barge because we need to
level the barge because the
weight was placed and moved
around several times of course,
so it was quite challenging to
make it happen.
The barges then towed across
the water to a quay with more
space to carry out the lifting
operations. Four of the biggest
telescopic cranes available,
then lift the hull from the
barge and place it
in the water.
Step two was the lifting of the
hull. We placed the slings
when we moved the barge to the
second location,
where there were
four mobile cranes.
We were very anxious to see how the
hull would be lifted
into the water.
This is the only opportunity to
place the gearboxes and the four
MTU 4000M73 engines, delivering
19,000 horsepower in total,
which are lowered carefully into
the engine room for later installation.
Afterwards we placed the
couplings and the
four engines, which is very
special because normally we
have two, but now we had four.
Then it's time for the actual
joining. The superstructure
arrives on another badge.
And is hoisted into the air by
two cranes. Once the barge is
moved out of the way, the
hull is towed into position
with great precision the
superstructure is then lowered
onto the hull.
It's a perfect fit thanks to
the precision engineering
Heesen is renowned for.
With the mast in place as well,
it's the first time project Cosmos
can show off her elegant
profile.
When the show is over Cosmos is
towed to shed number two,
where she will remain until her launch in 2021.
After being moved into position
the water is pumped out of the
dry dock, ready for the
next construction phase,
outfitting.
Today the hull and
superstructure are joined
and transported to shed two,
and now the
outfitting phase has started.
This is a long period until
the end of next year we do the
launch also in the same shed.
So we had two long days,
we started very early
we had a team of 5-6 people,
who were involved
the entire two days.
to get all the steps of
the transport done properly.
Everything went according to the plan,
and we met all the
time schedules as well.
It was a job well done.
Another milestone in this flagship
project is completed.
Thanks to a seamless collaboration
between the team at Heesen
and all its subcontractors.
