Vestdavit to provide telescopic davit for Danish Navy’s Absalon and Iver-class frigates

Marine davit manufacturer Vestdavit secured a contract for a new telescopic davit, which will be installed on Danish Navy’s Absalon and Iver-class frigates.

Under the contract, the company will deliver a total of eight TDBS 8000 systems for the launch and recovery of fast rescue boats that will be installed on four existing Absalon and Iver-class naval frigates.

The advanced davit is designed to function in a similar manner to a crane with a telescopic arm that is able to extend up to seven metres and handle boat loads of up to eight tonnes, based on high-performance requirements under the contract tender.

The DNV-approved solution is mounted on a slewing foundation that can swivel outwards from a longitudinal position in a confined space on the side of the vessel hull, with the foundation also part of the package to be delivered and installed by Vestdavit.

The system, which complies with Solas requirements, is capable of deploying and retrieving craft in sea state 6 – making it suitable for operation in harsh weather and wave conditions – and is designed to handle multiple sizes of craft as well as future boat types.

Among the vessels to be retrofitted, the frigate Peter Willemoes has recently been deployed to bolster Nato’s naval force in the Baltic region, while frigates Absalon and Esbern Snare have been used in UN-led anti-piracy operations off the east and west coasts of Africa, respectively. The remaining frigate is the Nils Juel.

Vestdavit began working on the contractual tender process back in 2018, evolving and developing the innovative davit concept over the past four years in alignment with the client’s detailed specifications, according to Managing Director Rolf Andreas Wigand.

He explained a major challenge was limited space availability due to the narrow location of the top-mounted system on the side of the vessel and the need to avoid installing davit structures and components on the main deck.

Consequently, Vestdavit has designed the system with a high level of functional automation given the geometrical limitations for manual operations, with digitalised remote control of davit movements.