15 people onboard a wind farm crew transfer vessel that was in collision with a cargo ship in the German sector of the Baltic Sea were injured and taken to hospital writes Dag Pike.

The crew transfer vessel World Bora was to the north east of Rügen Island on its way out to the Siemens Gamesa Wikinger wind farm when the collision occurred. World Bora collided with the 80 metre long Cyprus registered coaster Raba. Following the collision, World Bora travelled to Sassnitz under its own power where the crew and the passengers received medical treatment with two of the injured requiring a helicopter transfer to hospital.

The German lifeboat organisation DGzRS attended the scene of the accident and reported that several of those on board sustained serious injuries. There were four crew and 11 passengers on board at the time of the accident and both vessels are reported to have sustained significant damage.

The World Bora is one of operator World Marine Offshore’s Windserver 30 type of transfer vessels which is based on a SWASH hull. This is a trimaran concept that has a central hull based on a small waterplane concept combined with side stablising hulls. This greatly reduces the vessel motions in a seaway and these transfer vessels also have hydrofoils and Humphree interceptors to further reduce the vessel motions.

A full investigation into the causes of this accident is already under way.