Offshore Turbine Services Ltd is a new entrant into the rapidly expanding offshore wind turbine support market and having carried out a great deal of research, identified the CTruk Boats’ vessel as a very viable solution to all its needs so have two under construction and they are due to be in service shortly.
OTS is a new company and its Directors and staff have a broad mix of experience in both this market and business in general. The team includes Nick Bright who has fished all his working life from the coast of France to Scandinavia, his son Tom who has skippered boats in this industry for two of the established companies already servicing the turbines, Phil Collins who has a successful construction and property development business and Robin Jones who is an accountant and business advisor has brought financial expertise to the table.
Offshore Turbine Services will be taking advantage of CTruk Boats’ flexible pod system (patent applied for) which was designed specifically to meet the varied needs of wind farm support work. The new vessels will have passenger, fuel and rescue pods.
Phil Collins, Founder of Offshore Turbine Services explained, “Our vessels will be ferrying crew and fuel out to the wind turbines offshore so we decided on CTruk Boats’ MPCs because of their flexibility and the fuel economies produced by the lightweight technology used in their construction”.
By focussing on safety, CTruk found ways to make the traditionally heavy doors on work vessels lighter by using a resin infusion technique. The company’s choice of water jets over propellers means that its MPCs are more effective in shallow drafts, but also reduces problems with debris in the water which can often result in a day a month out of action. The decision to use the more expensive of the many options of Jet manufacturer, ie Rolls Royce, was driven not just by the build quality and prestige of such a name, it was driven by their clever joystick and control panel which is so easily taken to the edge of the boat in the event of a Man Overboard situation. This enables a much safer and quicker method to extract that person and minimise the risk of injury or worse. In addition, the jets’ Vector Stick controls are designed to be intuitive, making it easy for the skipper to use almost automatically, even when being bombarded with other information whilst docking at the turbine.
The composites which make up the work vessels’ hull are designed to make for a smoother, more hydrodynamic shape, whilst being light and very tough. It’s the same material the RNLI uses for its fast lifeboats. This means the vessel uses less fuel than aluminium alternatives.
Initially it was suggested that the fuel consumption of the vessels carrying out this work was not a consideration in the market but as fuel costs continue to rise, OTS identified that it would become a bigger issue and by using the CTruk vessels they would be in a position to offer dramatic fuel cost savings to the hirers of their vessels. OTS had looked at three aluminium hulled alternatives during the evaluation process and the fuel economy of the CTruk vessels was the major deciding factor along with their speed, comfort and finish. CTruk’s mantra of “safer, better, faster, more cost-effective” is very much echoed by OTS.
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Offshore WIND staff, March 29, 2012; Image: ctruk