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Leonardo da Vinci sister ship celebrates her official birth

Leonardo da Vinci sister ship celebrates her official birth

New installation vessel ready by April 2025

Prysmian Group executives travelled to the Vard shipyard in Tulcea, Romania on April 5 for the keel laying ceremony that marked the birth of its massive new 171-meter installation vessel, the sister ship to the state-of-the-art Leonardo da Vinci.

While the ceremony itself dates back to ancient times, the modern-day significance of a keel laying as the “ship’s birthday” means her design is no longer susceptible to modifications caused by changes in laws or regulations. This milestone is important in terms of the construction budget, because it eliminates risks of any future regulatory-derived delays

The highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of three “good luck” coins -- a euro, a Norwegian kroner and a Romanian leu -- that have been mounted onto a plaque and will sit prominently in the ship’s command center. The coins represent the ship’s three home countries: Italy (Prysmian Group’s headquarters), Norway (Vard Group’s home country) and Romania (where Vard’s shipyard in Tulcea is located).

The new vessel, scheduled to start commercial operation in early 2025, is identical to the Leonardo da Vinci, which was designed with input from Prysmian’s technicians and engineers incorporating their thirty-year experience starting with the platform design of the Giulio Verne, followed by the newer Cable Enterprise, Ulisse, Barbarossa I, and culminating with the cutting-edge Leonardo da Vinci christened in 2022.

Both the new ship and the Leonardo da Vinci are the only installation vessels in the world with 2 rotating platforms of 7,000 and 10,000 tons, bringing the total capacity up to 14,000 tons to ensure the highest carousel capacity in the market. Moreover, they both have a 100-ton capstan to allow for extreme deep-water installation of the heavy cables needed for energy transition.

One major improvement has been made to the new vessel compared to the Leonardo da Vinci: Prysmian has doubled her hybrid propulsion battery capacity to 3.0 MW in order to reduce emissions and consumption, and improve the overall eco-friendliness of the new ship.

By increasing its installation fleet to six vessels, Prysmian will maintain its market share in the face of stronger cables demand in new markets such as the United States, where it is building a new cables factory at Brayton Point, Massachusetts.