New generation wind farm vessel

The Seacat Enterprise was built in the UK by partner company South Boats IOW to conduct continuous high-speed crew and equipment transfers and is HSOSC-certified to carry more than the standard 12 passengers.

Ian Bayliss, managing director of Isle of Wight-based Seacat Services, said: “This boat is our answer to the operations and maintenance of the next generation of offshore wind farms. Some of them are 100 miles offshore now and that comes with its own unique set of challenges.”

Seacat Services, which owns and operates a fleet of DNV-GL classified multi-purpose offshore energy support vessels, expects the Seacat Enterprise will be used for taking crew changes to flotillas and back to shore and transporting containers, vital provisions and supplies, including turbine spares, to larger vessels.

Mr Bayliss confirmed the vessel does not yet have a contract attached to it, but added, “we’re starting crew training on her soon because she’s quite technically complex. Her size and propulsion is also relatively tricky to manoeuvre. (This is in) anticipation of her going to work in the next couple of months.”

Commenting on what vessels need to service far offshore wind farms and what the market demand is for this type of vessel, Mr Baylis said: It is clear that we are seeing the emergence of an efficient and cost-effective fleet model to conquer the challenges of far offshore projects. Whilst the industry has seen mainstream adoption of walk-to-work vessels the experienced client understands that step-to-work high speed crew transfer and utility vessels very much compliment these types of vessels to provide fast and efficient crew transfer, re-supply and crew change capabilities with some versatile multi-role vessels picking up other work scopes.

“Whilst in recent times the market has been tough due to an effective pause in construction we are now very much seeing that picture change as we enter the next wave of projects and the global fleet is once again very busy with an extremely strong forward outlook.”

Seacat Services’ first vessel was the 21m Seacat Endeavour, which it brought to Seawork in 2012.

By Rebecca Jeffrey