European expansion of boat share scheme

The vessel will join the CWind fleet working on offshore wind farms around the UK.

CWind is a UK based offshore wind industry service provider, working on construction and operations and maintenance projects across the industry. Under its boat share scheme, the company and the skipper both invest in the vessel and agree the sharing of costs and profits. While the skipper contributes the experience and manpower to run the vessel, CWind contributes contracts and contacts within the offshore wind industry as well as fleet management and their proven health and safety operating system.

The owner of a fleet of six fishing vessels, Scott Wharton’s company, S&P Group, already employs skippers from Wales, Bideford and Ilfracombe, 22 full-time fishermen and six shore side workers. Similar to CWind’s boat share scheme, the skippers all own shares in the company, giving them an enhanced interest and greater knowledge of the activities of the company. Scott Wharton himself is no stranger to the offshore wind industry either, having already undertaken traffic monitoring, plankton and trawl surveys over the last two to three years.

Scott Wharton said: “Joining the CWind boat share scheme allows us as a company to participate in the offshore wind industry. We have no intention of giving up fishing but as we all know, we need to find new ways of generating energy to support our economy and offshore wind is set to grow. We were looking for a partner that would recognise our strengths and in turn enable us to explore a new industry with confidence while we continue to provide employment for locals here. I strongly believe the two industries, fishing and offshore wind, can and must work alongside each other.”

CWind is also making its boat share scheme available to skippers in Germany, with Jannes Piepgras joining Cwind to take on a new 50T model designed by CWind sister company CTruk and currently under build. The DNV classed 28m LOA vessel is due for delivery in February 2014.

Jannes Piepgras has five years experience in the North Sea, working on windfarms off Germany, Belgium and the UK. He will man the vessel with an experienced German crew, staffed in accordance with the German Ship Crewing Regulations (SchBesV).

He said: “This is an exciting time to be joining the CWind boat share scheme. Germany has ambitious targets for offshore construction in the next few years. I am looking forward to being part of this, at the helm of my own vessel, designed to meet the tougher requirements of deeper offshore windfarm construction, which will become the norm in Germany.”