The IHC Group, probably best known as designers and builders of dredgers and dredging equipment, introduced to us six years ago the first so called 'Jumbo Dredger', Pearl River, capable of handling some 17,000m~3 of spoil, and this new vessel closely follows her design but with some notable changes, not least being a capability to operate at a shallow draught. Hitherto, because of draught restrictions, a requirement to dredge in waters of about 9m depth would have resulted in a dredger with a capacity of no more than 8,000m~3, but, mainly by increasing Lange Wapper's beam by 3-4 metres over that of ships of comparable size to compensate for a reduced draught, Merwede's designers have lifted that maximum capacity to 13,700m~3, and achieved for her a deadweight of 20,914 tonnes on a draught of 7.88m.
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