Damen launches new multi cat dredger concept

Multi Cats are typically used to provide dredging support for cutter suction dredgers, carrying out tasks such as anchor shifting and cutter teeth replacement. Now, by fitting a ‘plug-and-play’ dredging system on board a Multi Cat, the vessel can provide more than support, becoming an active dredging unit itself.
“Damen invented the Multi Cat as the ideal dredge support vessel – what I like to think of as floating work bench – for cutter suction dredgers,” said Damen product director Dredging, Olivier Marcus. “This is a logical step forward for a platform that has dredging in its DNA.”
Submersible dredging DOP pumps or ploughs have previously been fitted to a stern A-frame on board Multi Cats for sand mining or maintenance dredging. With Damen’s new system, however, the Multi Cat water injection dredger will use a high-volume, low-pressure flow of water for injection into silt to create a density flow which can be removed from waterways and channels in ports and harbours.
With appropriate foundations on board a Multi Cat, the modular WID system can be installed or removed without drydocking, Marcus explained, and since the system can be applied to a modular Multi Cat, the WID can be shipped anywhere in the world, even to remote and inaccessible locations.