Havyard of Norway is to design and build two Havyard 832 SOVs (service operation vessels) for Danish company Esvagt, which will operate them as windfarm service vessels.
They are due to be delivered from the Havyard Ship Technology shipyard in Leirvik at the end of next year (December) and March 2015.
Esvagt is a major player in North Sea oil and gas support operations but is a new customer for Havyard.
The Norwegian firm is also a newcomer to the design and build of vessels for offshore windfarm services.
The heritage of the design is, however, taken from technology that Havyard has developed and delivered to the offshore oil industry.
“We are not trying to reinvent the wheel,” said Arve Leine of Havyard Design & Solutions.
“The most successful development of new products are often based on recycling familiar technology, but quite likely improved and made use of in new ways.
“The Havyard 832 SOV design is a good example of this. This design is based on our PSVs (platform supply vessels) where we have incorporated technology that is used to serve the needs for service and maintenance of offshore wind turbine installations.
“There is, of course, a list of new demands put on to a vessel of this design and in co-operation with Esvagt we have reached a new design that we think will perform these assignments in the safest and most economical way.
“Main capabilities for such a vessel is that it needs to be a stable, secure and comfortable work platform for the crew working on the wind turbine installations and that it has capacities for carrying necessary equipment and cargo.
“In addition, the vessel must of course be operation-economical, both in transit between harbour and installations and when it is positioned by the installations.
“We have therefore put huge emphasis on optimising the hull in relation to fuel economy and sea-keeping capabilities, in addition to arrangement of cargo capabilities, machinery and accommodation for crew,” Leine added.
Esvagt and Havyard have been working up the windfarm support vessel concept for some time and believe they have come up with a design that will deliver what the market needs going forward.
Havyard sees offshore wind as a potential new market with great future opportunities and sees the Esvagt order as “a good starting point together with market leaders”.
The Havyard 832 SOV will measure 83.7m length overall, by 17.6m breadth and have a service speed of 14 knots.
Also breaking into the wind support market is French specialist vessel designer and builder Piriou of Concarneau, which is especially famous for fishing vessels and fast workboats.
It is using the experience gained in the building of 100 aluminium crew boats ranging in length from 18m to 53m to fuel the new ambition.
Piriou has entered into an agreement with naval architects BMT Nigel Gee to offer multi-hull designs that they hope will attract the market. Like Havyard, the company says that it has no intention of reinventing the wheel.
“We have chosen proven designs which have proved themselves in ships that have been built and are already in operation, and the feedback from which guarantees a perfectly adapted ship”, said company president Pascal Piriou.
The construction of the first two units has begun and the vessels will be available for operation in Europe at the end of the year.
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