On Tuesday 20 June ZITON took over the jack-up vessel GUO DIAN TOU 001 (ex. TORBEN, ex. FRIEDERICH ERNESTINE) alongside in Weihai, China. The vessel – a twin sister to WIND ENTERPRISE and the fifth vessel in the ZITON fleet – were re-flagged to Danish flag and named WIND ENERGY.
In the following seven weeks WIND ENERGY has undergone extensive work on a shipyard in Weihai to prepare her for her coming crew and for the long transit back to Europe.
The work included:
- Accommodation interior removed and scrubbed.
- The blue color on the hull – worn since birth, changed into the ZITON red.
- Accommodation building, jacking towers, main deck and other upright painted.
- Extensive indoor cleaning of cabins, galley area, TV-rooms etc.
- Spud-cans removed and loaded on deck for the transit.
On Saturday 5 August the vessel was loaded on to the deck of Boskalis’s semi-sub vessel FORTE and is now ready to depart from China. After a pit stop in Singapore, where she will have her legs removed in order to make her able to pass through the Suez Channel, ZITON expects WIND ENERGY to arrive in Odense Lindø, Denmark, in the beginning of November 2023 for a yard-stay, where another three months of retrofit awaits to bring her up to European standards.
WIND ENERGY is expected to be operational by mid-February when she commences a six-year time-charter with Siemens Gamesa.
