A visit to the hopper dredger 'Moustakbal'

The 'Moustakbal', meaning 'Future' in Arabic, is Drapor's largest and most modern dredger. It was built for Drapor in 1999 by the Dutch dredger builder IHC Holland and has a capacity of 1,500 m3, which is about twice as big as the hopper dredgers that IHC Holland has delivered to Morocco earlier.
Other characteristics of the 'Moustakbal' are: a loading capacity of 2,650 ton; a length of 87.5 m and a breadth of 15.7 m.
The dredger is equipped with a suction pipe with a diameter of 700 mm and it can dredge to a maximum of 25 m.
But it is in particular the extremely reduced loaded draught of 3.7 m that makes this vessel extraordinary. This draught combined with a loading capacity of over 2,500 ton is rather unique for this type of dredgers. This reduced draught was achieved by designing the vessel with a greater length and breadth then usual.
Although this lead to slightly higher investment costs, it made the 'Moustakbal' extremely suited for the kind of work it was destined to do in Morocco: maintenance dredging in almost every port on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast as well as sand reclamation very close to the shore.

The 'Moustakbal' is equipped with two 'Caterpillar' type 3516 DI-TA main propulsion engines each delivering a power of 1,193 kW with 1,500 revolutions per minute. Each of these engines drives a propeller for the propulsion of the vessel. One of the engines also drives a generator that is used for the electrical motor of the dredge pump.

The 'Moustakbal' is a very versatile vessel that can be used for all thinkable dredging operation.
Dredging itself is mostly done with the 'California'-type trailing suction head but also a specially designed suction head for stationary dredging that can be fitted to the suction pipe can be used. Discharging the vessel can be achieved in three different ways: by opening the bottom doors; by pumping through a floating pipeline and by 'rain bowing'. When pumping through a pipeline, the dredged material can be pumped over a maximum distance of 1 km and it takes about one hour to discharge in that way. Discharging by rain bowing is a technique that is used regularly with the 'Moustakbal' which is possible due to the reduced draught enabling the vessel to come very close to the dumping site. When rain bowing a distance of 100 m can be reached.

Drapor is giving a lot of effort to keep the 'Moustakbal' in perfect working condition and takes care that the dredger complies with the most recent maritime directitives.
In 2002 the 'Moustakbal' was the first dredger that Drapor successfully prepared to be certified according to the ISM (International Safety Management) code.
The dredger is also equipped with the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) as prescribed by the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers (STCW).

About Drapor

The dredging company Drapor has been created in 1984 by the Moroccan government. Before 1984 dredging in Morocco was done either by private companies or by some state owned dredgers that were stationed in and operated by separate ports.
With the creation of Drapor all the state owned dredgers became available to this company making it possible to deploy these dredgers in a coordinated way all over the country wherever they were needed. This resulted in a more efficient use of the dredgers and in a more independent situation regarding the need of private companies to do dredging.
Until 1995 Drapor has limited itself to dredging in the Moroccan ports but after that the company has started some new activities like the production and marketing of marine sand, the cleaning of water surfaces in the ports and marine survey operations. At this moment Drapor operates five trailing suction hopper dredgers, four stationary suction dredgers and two grab dredgers together with auxiliary equipment. The acquisition of a third grab dredger is scheduled for 2003.

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