Sea Fox is powered by Doosan

Operating out of Lowestoft, Sea Fox was built by French workboat builder Navalu and is powered by four Doosan 4V158TIM diesel engines driving four independent propulsion lines allowing the vessel to be operated effectively even while offshore in the unlikely event of engine failure.

“Windfarm vessels often operate in areas where there is limited access to service repair centres, so the Doosan engines are ideal with their unsophisticated systems and easy availability to spare parts,” said Tony Fryer, sales manager for UK and Ireland Doosan distributor, WaterMota.

“It is more common for a vessel of this size to have twin engines but the customer specifically requested four engines so that, while Doosan engines are known for their reliability, if one were to fail there would be less impact on the cruising speed and the vessel’s ability to return to port.”

Designed to MCA Category 1 and Bureau Veritas Classification for Wind Farm Service Ships, Sea Fox is a fast marine utility vessel designed to work on offshore windfarms in the North Sea.

With a length of 24m and width of 10m, the vessel is able to sleep 12 in four cabins, the vessel has a full galley, head and shower and stowage for personal gear. The vessel also has 14 suspension seats and a large deck area capable of loading two 20ft containers and carrying 12 tonnes of cargo.

Sea Fox has been designed to give good speed and sea-keeping with low fuel consumption and maximum reliability and so far the engines have received the thumbs up from Enviroserve.

“We’re very happy with the engines so far,” said Ben Stebbing of Enviroserve. “So far so good.”

During its first sea trials, Sea Fox passed the waterline testing and achieved high speed performances, exceeding 24 knots at 90% engine load factor, despite unsuitable sailing conditions in the Atlantic Sea.

Sea Fox is one of a fleet of nine delivering 24-hour offshore support for oil and gas platforms, wellheads, harbour duties, marine mammal and ornithological surveys, windfarm support and turbine transfers, diving operations, remotely operated vehicle programmes and TV crew transfers.

Vessels are currently working in projects from Scotland and Wales to the Netherlands and France with contracts including the world’s largest offshore windfarm, the 175 turbine London Array off the Thames Estuary.

Build work has started on the second Navalu NxS 24 vessel which will be built to the same design and will also be fitted with four Doosan 4V158TIM engines.

The Doosan V158TIM engine produces 600bhp / 441kW @ 2100rpm. The engine is a 14.6 litre V8 twin turbo charged and intercooled unit with a conventional fuel injection system and two push-rod operated values per cylinder for simplicity and ease of maintenance.

By Katina Read