Freja awarded best Cable Laying Vessel of the year 2025 ! The advanced cable laying vessel Freja, designed and built by VARD for Denmark’s subsea specialist NCT Offshore, has been awarded Best Cable Layer 2024 by Baird Maritime. The award recognizes Freja’s state-of-the-art design, sustainable solutions, and operational excellence in supporting offshore renewable energy. Freja is based on the VARD 9 01 design, has been specially designed and equipped for subsea cable laying operations. It features excellent sea-keeping capabilities, superior station-keeping performance, and low fuel consumption, making it an ideal choice for efficient and sustainable operations The vessel is equipped with a complete SeaQ power and control package, encompassing batteries, switchboards, and shore connection, allowing for a reduction in fuel consumption and increased operability. Additionally, the vessel is fitted with two main cable tanks, a T-ROV hangar, a walk-to-work system, and is prepared for a large A-frame and single-cabin accommodation for 60 persons. Vard Interiors has delivered sustainable HVAC-R and piping systems. Seaonics has delivered a 22m Electrically Controlled Motion Compensated(ECMC) Gangway. The hull of the vessel was constructed at Vard Shipyards Romania – Tulcea. The cable layer was outfitted, commissioned and delivered from Vard Langsten in Norway.
They’ve come a long way since my Dad took a captain position aboard “Giant ll” back in the Sixties. They were laying submarine-detection cable on the bottom around Hawaii.
PS: This is how a shipyard in high cost Norway can compete on the world market. Not by protection but by innovation and using yards in lower cost countries to build the hulls to detailed design and engineering drawings, under supervision by the contracting parties.
