Safehaven Marine brings its first wind farm support vessel to Seawork

This GRP built craft is a completely new design, the first of two vessels being built for the Irish company Island Shipping. The hull design is a larger version of Safehaven’s respected Wildcat 36/40 design, incorporating the same high buoyancy bow, twin chine catamaran hull form that is well proven for providing exceptional levels of sea keeping and performance.

The new catamaran design is 16m moulded (17m LOA) with a 6.1m/20ft beam. It has been designed from the outset specifically as a wind farm support vessel. To this end the bow area has been designed to accommodate a specially developed fender system from Ocean 3. The fender design is of high density foam core measuring 300mm by 400mm, with a heavy 50mm thick rubber wall to cushion impacts and stresses in the bow.

Safehaven has vast experience of building strong GRP hulls and the Wildcat 53 has the same heavy duty scantlings as the company’s renowned pilot boats, which are often subject to severe impacts in rough weather. This experience has been brought to bear in producing a vessel that can withstand heavy use in the often harsh environment where wind farm support vessels must operate.

Building in GRP provides many benefits. Being a homogeneous structure it is very strong and provides a high standard of external finish with no maintenance requirement in a vessel which is also easy to repair. The graceful lines of all Safehaven designs are in evidence again and result in a very striking vessel.

Island Tiger is powered by twin Scania D12 engines, each rated at 650hp and driving Ultra Dynamics 451 waterjets. On sea trials Island Tiger met all contractual requirements and in some respects even surpassed them, achieving a maximum speed of 25 knots. Such performance combines with a very soft ride, which allied with low noise levels of only 67db in the cabin at maximum speed results in high levels of comfort for passengers and crew alike.

The superstructure is a raised bridge deck design with the helm and navigator’s position elevated to provide excellent visibility. The cabin is centrally positioned in an island configuration, with a clear 750mm walkway each side and around the bow, where there is a cargo lifting space. Such generosity provides both a safe passageway and spacious work/boarding area at the bow.

Twin dive platforms at the transom of each hull give waterline access through transom gates, and the well decked aft cockpit features a HIAB 033T crane and a large clear cargo area.

Accommodation is spacious and designed to provide a comfortable and luxurious environment, with a combination of aircraft style transit seating and a dinette style seating platform with a table which provides a comfortable area during standby. A 20” plasma screen and DVD player are valuable at such times.

The cabin design is open plan with a full galley in the port hull and bunk berths in the starboard hull. A useful feature is the incorporation of a wet room, featuring aft cockpit access, hanging space, toilet and shower facilities. There is a second access from there direct to the main accommodation, which allows personnel the ability to disrobe from work gear and enter the living area clean and dry.

Island Tiger is highly specified in other ways too, with a 9kW generator providing 240V power throughout the vessel. A very comprehensive navigation suite from Furuno, with twin scanner high definition radar and GPS all displayed on multiple 17” screens. There is talk back deck communication, autopilot and onboard WiFi. High definition CCTV records boarding and aft cockpit operations.

Island Shipping is an Irish company operating vessels and providing consultancy services predominantly for the offshore wind farm industry. The company has played a large part over the last six years in the development of the Arklow Bank Offshore Wind Farm on Ireland’s east coast. Having operated vessels at Arklow, the next logical step for the company was to invest further in the growing offshore wind farm sector in these islands.

‘Island Shipping is delighted with this latest edition to the fleet,’ said the company’s commercial director Tim Greenwood, ‘Initial trials have indicated that the Island Tiger will exceed our expectations in terms of performance, finish and reliability. This is a state of the art Windfarm Service Vessel and Safehaven Marine in Cork have done a super job to complete the project on time and to make it such a good looking and durable vessel.

‘No expense has been spared to ensure that the Island Tiger is fitted with the latest equipment and conforms to relevant health and safety standards. Attention to passenger and crew comfort has been of paramount importance in the design and build.’ UK flagged and MCA coded, the Island Tiger will soon be working on a UK wind farm. At the time of writing Island Shipping was in discussion with a number of interested parties. Island Tiger is first vessel of two ordered by Island Shipping and is due to be on the floating pontoon at Seawork 2010 alongside Pathfinder, the second of two Safehaven Marine pilot/patrol boats delivered to the Port of Southampton.