Naval architect Chartwell Marine, and independent technical consultancy, Seaspeed Marine Consulting, have been awarded a prize by the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) for an innovative vessel design proposal.
The OWA competition aims to facilitate the development of technologies aiding the ongoing de-carbonisation of Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) in the offshore wind industry.
The funding - £70,000 of a total £300,000 awarded to four winners - will be used to make the design proposal a reality. During the project, Chartwell will undertake the vessel design work, while Seaspeed will carry out R&D, testing and hull form development.
The work program will run to May 2020, during which time the design will be modelled, designed, tested and commercialised by Chartwell. This will lead to opportunities for vessel operators and project owners to benefit from new, cutting edge vessel technologies.
The designs submitted were assessed primarily for their capacity to reduce emissions, but also for their cost-effectiveness and safety advantages.
By Jake Frith
