Following the announcement that MHI Vestas Offshore Wind signed a 10-year contract with Esvagt for a service operation vessel (SOV), Turkish Cemre Shipyard reported that it signed a contract with Esvagt for the delivery of the Havyard-designed SOV.
Havyard Design & Solutions will provide the Havyard 831 SOV design and equipment package for the shipyard, which is going to build the vessel and deliver it to Esvagt in 2017. The SOV will be used by MHI Vestas to service Nobelwind and Belwind offshore wind farms in Belgium.
Gisle Vinjevoll Thrane , Vice President Sales of Havyard Design & Solutions, sees a great potential in delivering more such designs in the time ahead. “The market for big service vessels for offshore windfarms is a relatively new one, and, in cooperation with ESVAGT, we have entered this market at an early stage.”
“The windmills used to be serviced by small, fast-moving boats that transported personnel and equipment daily to and from the shore. More and more windfarms are now serviced by bigger ships where the service personnel work and live on board for prolonged periods and access the windmills by means of a gangway installed on the mother ship or small boats launched from the mother ship. This is a safer and more profitable way of servicing the windfarms, particularly those far offshore,” Thrane said.
Havyard sold the design and building of the first wind farm service vessels to Esvagt in July 2013. The ships in question were of the Havyard 832 SOV type, and were delivered by Havyard Ship Technology’s shipyard in Leirvik in Sogn during the first quarter this year. The shipyard has an order for another such design for Esvagt, which is scheduled for delivery in September 2016.
In addition, Havyard Design & Solutions has sold a design and equipment package for a Havyard 931 CCV crew change vessel that will be built for Esvagt at the Spanish shipyard Astilleros Zamakona.
Esvagt’s COO Kristian Ole Jakobsen , said: “Our primary focus is on delivering safe and efficient support services for our clients. We have now used this experience and expertise to establish a position for ourselves in the market for service vessels for offshore windfarms. By combining operating expertise with Havyard’s expertise in designing and building state-of-the-art vessels, we can deliver service vessels that give our customers an effective and safe platform for servicing their windmills.”