Our vessel has a remarkable history, which can be characterised by four episodes.
She was built in 2001 by
J.J. Sietas Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, as "Kvitnes", a self-unloading bulk carrier.
In 2003 she was converted into a rock dumping vessel and fitted with a flexible fallpipe system by Keppel Verolme Shipyard in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She was re-named to "Rocknes".
With a loading capacity of 24000 tons she was, and still is, the biggest rock installation vessel on the market.
Due to a tragic accident on 19 January 2004, she capsized and 18 of our colleagues lost their lives. As you can imagine, this had an enormous impact on their relatives, survivors, our colleagues, our company, our clients, the offshore industry and the maritime industry as a whole.
After the accident, she was towed to Remontowa Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. During 2004 and 2005 she was re-built and re-named to "Nordnes". She came back into operation in June 2005.
The vessel is managed by Jebsen Management AS, Norway. Van Oord NV, the Netherlands, is the owner and is responsible for all rock installation operations.
The name Nordnes stems from a neighbourhood on the peninsula Nordnes in the city centre of Bergen, Norway. The neighbourhood Nordnes includes approximately 50% of the peninsula. The neighbourhoods Strandsiden and Verftet, as well as parts of Nøstet, are also located on Nordnes.
