First overseas contract for Red7Marine
Red7Marine project cargo is loaded on board the cargo ship 'Henny' for transport to Israel.
East Anglia UK based Red7Marine (R7M,ex Haven Ports/ Anglian Marine Services) has started its first overseas commission by shipping a jack up barge to the Israeli port of Haifa, where it is to be used for site investigation work on a new port extension.
The Haven SeaJack 3 is one of four C5 barges owned by Red7 out of a total of six jack ups they operate. It has an 18m by 12m footprint and is capable of taking a working load in excess of 80 tons. It is not self propelled and will be moved around the Haifa site by a local Israeli tug. From receiving the order Red7 took just six days to design, develop and construct a crane base and access platform to take a new 20t/m knuckleboom crane.
The barge and the client’s drilling equipment was exported from the same quay in Ipswich docks as Red7Marine’s yard. The vessel chartered to carry the project cargo was the Dutch flagged coaster Henny (1982/1,241gt, ex-Liamare, ex-Dependent) under the management of Flinter. Shipping agents were Community Shipping and the cargo was loaded by ABP cranage, with stowage and sea securing by the ship’s captain and crew along with Red7 personnel. Loading took two days and the passage to Israel was expected to last 16 days.
The cargo consisted of four spud wells, loaded at the forward end of the hold, six float sections, which fitted the breadth of the ship’s hold with only inches to spare, four x 27m spud legs, the hydraulic power pack and the operator’s cabin. They were driven the few hundred metres from the yard to quayside on extendable ‘trombone’ trailers.
Red7’s barge master flew out to take charge of the craft in Haifa, while Soil Mechanics are providing the drilling crews. Red7Marine’s managing director Nick Offord said, ‘This is our first overseas contract and we hope it is the first of many. In the future, look out for us going to other foreign parts. We have worked with Soil Mechanics before, notably last year on the Redcar wind farm project on the Tees.’
Red7Marine currently operates the six jack up barges, with associated workboats and plant, as well as having the slipway at Ipswich. The Haven SeaJack 3 was prevously working at St Davids in West Wales and was dismantled and road transported across country to Ipswich.
Other barges are working on the Thames Gateway project for Laing O’Rourke, the Felixstowe reconfiguration for Costain, and on the storm water outfall at Blackpool for Volker Stevin. Another jack-up is working out of Harwich for Dong Energy’s Gunfleet Wind Farm contract. The company recently purchased another 18m by 12m barge from Mackley.
by Graeme Ewens
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