Dick Van Lent of Feadship’s Royal Van Lent shipyard in Holland has announced plans to expand its premises on Kaag Island in the Netherlands. He is confident that his company will benefit from the €40 million of government funding
Due to the limited spatial options around the yard, Royal van Lent will extend underground in order to build even larger yachts over the coming years.
Like its fellow Feadship yards belonging to Koninklijke De Vries Scheepsbouw, the Royal van Lent yard has been building increasingly longer yachts over recent years.
The first part of the expansion at Kaarg will see the hall doors being widened and the dry-dock door moved five meters forward to provide the space necessary to fit the long propeller shafts on larger yachts.
Construction is due to start in August 2012.
Another change will be to one of the yard’s two slipways, which is currently built on wooden piles and is unsuitable for yachts over 45 meters. With the yard planning to concentrate primarily on yachts over 60 meters, the modernisation of the slipway is scheduled to start in August of this year and will involve underground work.
Royal Van Lent will also see widening the locks in the nearby city of Gouda from 12 to 14 meters. The bridges in the towns of Oude and Nieuwe Wetering will also be extended to the same width, with an expected completion date of 2012.
