There are some blunt facts about wind farm support vessels and some of them do not make pleasant reading. In the past four years there have been many wind farm support vessels built, some for existing companies and some for new companies. At the time they were ordered the prospects looked good with the UK Round 3 projects that were announced in January 2010 in sight. For many owners and operators of these new vessels it must now appear that the prospects for full time employment in 201U are not as good as was earlier expected.
The operation & maintenance (O&M) work on the existing Round 2 and 2A wind farms continues, and will remain buoyant until the start of the Round 3 projects providing work for good proportion of the wind farm support vessels.