Fleet of foot

Damen has been quick to build a fleet ready for offshore wind operations, from fast crew suppliers to the latest SOVs. Elaine Maslin reports.

The Bibby Wavemaster. Images from Damen.

Ship builder Damen started its foray into the renewables market in 2010. The family-owned firm had already been supplying spare parts into the market, but saw a greater opportunity.

The firm built Jumbo’s J-Class vessels, which, although designed as heavy transport vessels, were also outfitted with DP2 and used to install transition pieces in the North Sea. Damen’s fast crew suppliers (FCS), or crew transfer vessels, as they’re often referred to in the offshore wind business, Twin Axe design vessels, specially designed for the renewables, have also proved popular in the North Sea for oil and gas work, for clients including Seazip and Rederij Groen. Some 40 of its FCS 2610, for offshore wind and oil and gas work, have been sold to date.

But, one of the firm’s latest projects is a vessel on another scale: the 90m-long Bibby WaveMaster 1 DP2 service operations vessel (SOV) for offshore wind farm maintenance and support work, which is being built at Damen Shipyards Galati, Romania, with launch planned for early next year. It has a motion compensated gangway for turbine or platform access and can accommodate up to 45 maintenance personnel, management and a crew of 15 and could stay out for voyages of up to one month, traveling at up to 13 knots.

It’s a whole new design, says Peter Robert, Damen’s head of business development. “The SOV is the first dedicated vessel of its kind – i.e. not a converted version of another offshore type, such as a PSV,” he says. “The attention that has been spent on the vessel’s efficiency, seakeeping, logistical workflow and ergonomics make it very unique. The SOV combines accommodation, not just with maintenance functionality, but also installation support. Its primary market will be offshore wind, but it can also serve the oil and gas industry.”

Just as it has built the FCS units in series, off spec – a Damen philosophy which has meant it is able to reduce delivery times – it also hopes to do this for SOVs. In fact, before Bibby Marine Services placed its order for the first Damen-built SOV, the firm had already decided that it would build it, Robert says.

Peter Robert, Damen’s Head of Business Development

Damen has also been supplying cable layers, including the Nexus, delivered to Van Oord in 2014 from Galati, and the Maersk Connector, delivered to Maersk Supply Service earlier this year and on long-term charter to DeepOcean. Both are based on the Damen Offshore Carrier 8500 design. The latter has a 7000-tonne cable carousel and seven-point mooring system with an ability to “ground out” to do shallow water work.

Earlier this year, Damen together with fellow Dutch outfit GustoMSC, also launched the DG JACK design, a range of self-propelled and non-self-propelled jackup platforms, for use in oil and gas, and renewables for maintenance type work. “DG Jack is the result of in-depth market analysis, so we are confident that there is a market demand for it,” Robert says. “This has been backed up a number of early expressions of interest from around the world. It’s clear from the amount of projects beings carried out, as well as wind farms already built, that there will be a growing need for maintenance in the coming years.”

Damen is also active in the wave and tidal sector. It is a partner in the BlueTec tidal development project, featured in last year’s OE Region Dutch Offshore review, and its Multi Cat has also been employed in this sector, by Scotmarine in the UK.