Twelve months after the keel laying of the trailing suction hopper dredger Leiv Eiriksson at Construcciones Navales del Norte in Sestao, Spain, the vessel was launched on 4 September.

The mega hopper, with a capacity of 46,000m³ , is a sister vessel to Cristóbal Colón.

The vessel is equipped with two suction pipes, with a diameter of 1,300mm, with electrically driven underwater dredge pumps, with a power of 6,500kW each, enabling dredging down to water depths of 155m.

Discharge is possible by means of two electrically driven shore discharging dredge pumps, with each 8,000 kW power.

Fully loaded, carrying up to 78,500 tons of sand, Leiv Eiriksson will sail at a speed of 18 knots, and will thus offer clients an economic solution for the execution of major dredging and land reclamation jobs.

The naming was performed by Annita Boel, wife of Géry Vandewalle, a Director at Jan de Nul. Instead of the traditional bottle of Champagne, a bottle of red wine was used, which is customary in this region of Northern Spain.

After the launching, the ship was moored at the outfitting quay of the shipyard, for completion.

Early in 2010 the vessel will join the fleet of Jan De Nul Group, which will then include the two largest hopper dredgers in the world. At this time the company wil also become the largest fleet of hopper dredgers in the world.

The next ship to be built in Sestao is JDN8035, a suction hopper dredger with a capacity of 30,500m³.