Boskalis' Windpiper Starts Subsea Rock Installation for Poland Offshore Wind

Boskalis has converted the former vessel Windpiper into a 45,500‑metric‑ton subsea rock installation (SRI) ship, the largest of its kind. Dutch engineering firm Vuyk Engineering supplied the basic design, adding an inclined fall‑pipe system, bulk hoppers and structural reinforcements to enable continuous rock placement on the seabed.

The newly‑christened vessel left Rotterdam, loaded rock from a quarry in Norway, and sailed to the Baltic Sea to begin its first campaign supporting a roughly 1.2 GW offshore wind farm in the Polish sector, identified as the Baltic Power project. Windpiper’s 227‑metre length, 40‑metre beam and 31 MW of installed power equip it for large‑scale rock installation required for wind turbine foundations.