In late February 2024 Dutch offshore services giant Boskalis commissioned its new cable-laying vessel (CLV) Boka Ocean following a major conversion programme.
Boskalis welcomed Boka Ocean to its fleet in August 2023 as a pipe-laying vessel, and she was then converted into a broadly deployable cable layer.
After completing her sea trials in the North Sea, the vessel, formerly Apache II, is ready to start on her maiden project in the German part of the North Sea, installing her first subsea cable at an offshore wind farm.
The 2009-built Boka Ocean has an overall length of 136.6m and a breadth of 27m and can accommodate 118 people in 71 cabins.
Boka Ocean joins her two sister vessels in the Boskalis fleet, which were acquired in the past two and a half years and are now operating as Boka Northern Ocean and Boka Southern Ocean.
According to Boskalis, although still similar in appearance, each vessel has its own specialty, with Boka Southern Ocean and Boka Northern Ocean being high-end construction support vessels, busy with IRM and decommissioning work in the North Sea and offshore wind farm construction activities in Southeast Asia.
Boskalis recently reported it had installed a new energy storage system on board its diving support vessel (DSV) Boka Atlantis as part of the efforts to make its fleet more sustainable.
