in June 2010 with South Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd. Midway through the build, Allseas decided to widen the ship by in order to increase the clearance between the bows and the legs of large platforms. As a result, the overall width increased from , and the slot width from . Pioneering Spirit departed Daewoo in November 2014 and arrived at the Maasvlakte 2, Port of Rotterdam, for completion and commissioning, on January 8, 2015. After the topside lifting system was installed, she left Rotterdam on 6 August 2016. The original name caused controversy due to Pieter Schelte Heerema's service in the Waffen-SS during World War II. As a result, in February 2015, Allseas announced that the vessel's name would be changed to Pioneering Spirit. Upgrades In July 2019, Allseas announced a plan to upgrade the lift capacity from 48,000 tonnes to 60,000 tonnes. This reason for the same is to enable the removal of Statfjord A platform in the North Sea. In September 2021, a set of sheerlegs with a lifting capacity of 20,000 tonnes was installed on the stern deck of the ship, permitting it to also hoist platform jackets. This also made it the largest floating sheerleg in the world. Design Pioneering Spirit is the world's largest vessel, in terms of her gross tonnage (403,342 gt), breadth (), and displacement (). The maximum topside lift capacity is achieved by operating as a semi-submersible. For removal of topsides, the vessel straddles the intended payload with the slot formed by the twin bows. The slot measures (L×W). After straddling the payload, Pioneering Spirit takes on ballast to lower, and two sets of eight (one set per bow) retractable motion-compensated horizontal lifting beams are extended under the payload. Once the load is secure, the vessel offloads the ballast, rising in the water and partially transferring the load to the beams. In the final stage a fast lift system is used that lifts the payload up to in 15 s. Aside from the ballast lifting system, Pioneering Spirit is equipped with large conventional cranes, including a sheerleg and rotating cranes. Two tilting lift beams for the installation or removal of the steel jackets used for fixed platforms, up to in weight, will be located at the vessel's stern. The lift beams for the Jacket Lifting System were installed in 2021. A special purpose crane built by Huisman