December 28 - Having announced in July this year that it had won a contract from Jumbo Shipping to build a heavy lift ship, Croatian shipbuilder Brodosplit has revealed that the shipping company has also taken up the option for one additional vessel with

Brodosplit says that the second ship will also be 152 m in length and 27 m wide. It will be equipped with two cranes each with a capacity of 1,100 tonnes and have a deadweight in draft of 8.1 m of 14,000 tonnes. Powered by two engines, each developing 4,500 kW at 750 rpm, it will have a speed of 17 knots.

In order to work in polar regions, the vessel will be built under ice class. For offshore operations the vessel will be prepared for future DP2 installation.

Both ships will be classed by Lloyd's Register.

The shipyard says that on delivery, which is planned for the first and second halves of 2013, the ships will be the largest in Jumbo's fleet.

In an official statement, Brodosplit said that heavy lift vessels are sophisticated and not normally built in Croatian shipyards. But, this is a sector of the shipbuilding industry that is a strategic goal of the company.