COMPANY PROFILE
2014
Offshore Wind Services
+31 (0) 10 453 0377 | www.workships.nl
Offshore’s very important passengers Editorial: Colin Chinery
Vessels with high accessibility and personnel transfer capability are critical to avoid unnecessary downtime for the offshore operator. And crew comfort is an increasingly important factor as Philip Woodcock, Operations Director of Offshore Wind Services 360,000 safe crew transfers since 2006 – explains. They are Offshore’s VIPs - centre stage of one of the most dynamic areas of the offshore sector - the crew transfer or service vessel. The efficient transfer of engineers is a lynch-pin component; critical to scheduled and non-scheduled operations. And a CTV must be safe, fully functional and – increasingly significant - comfortable. “We are operating taxis,” says Offshore Wind Services Operations Director, Philip Woodcock. “When you get into a taxi you
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want one that’s big enough for you and your suite case, and when you get out at the other end you are not feeling car sick. Same thing with a crew boat.” Offshore Wind Services (OWS) is a vessel owner dedicated to providing vessels for the offshore wind industry, managed by Workships Contractors, the Rotterdam-based privately-owned ship and project management company. Across the sector operators are designing new vessels to meet the
changing demand of the offshore wind industry, with new-build larger vessels providing better sea keeping qualities as well as greater payload capacity. Key areas are fuel efficiency and the ability to access wind farms in higher sea states. And with staff retention a growing issue, another requirement is comfort for crew and passengers.
SAFE TRANSFER RECORD Now in its 25th year and currently operating CTVs in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany for companies such as Vattenfall, Dong Energy, RWE npower and ENECO, Workships and OWS have delivered more than 360,000 safe crew transfers since 2006. Founded in 1998, and with a background in larger oil and gas assets such as jack-ups and accommodation
OWS vessels, Workships expanded into the crew transfer niche three years ago, launching OWS as a joint venture with Royal Doeksen. Twelve months later OWS acquired leading operators Offshore Wind Power Marine Services of North Wales. OWPMS was one of the original players in crew transfer, a vision born of experience. Following their involvement in the construction of the UK’s first large scale offshore wind farm project at North Hoyle in 2003, Paul Walsh and Eddie Ward saw the growing need for dependable support vessels throughout the UK and Europe, co-founding, Offshore Wind Power Marine Services in 2006. “They were part of that first pioneering division that went out and started building wind farms, and a lot of the rules and equipment in place came from early guys like Paul and Eddie,” says Philip Woodcock. It was an acquisition that gave Workships a critical insight into the offshore wind industry. Now, two years on, OWS offer clients a range of 10 dedicated wind farm service /crew transfer vessels capable of safe and secure docking with offshore wind turbine generators during construction, commissioning and operation and maintenance periods. Three vessels are new to the OWS fleet this year; the ‘Offshore Weelinger’ a 12 passenger diamond Damen twin FCS 2610; ‘Offshore Beaver’ a multipurpose / diving support vessel with a 32 pax accommodation capacity, 25t crane, salvage winches and 4-point mooring system; and the Damen 2008 ‘Offshore Waddenzee’, currently working on the Luchterduinen windfarm in the Netherlands. “It was on stock, and just six weeks after ordering we took delivery. This is Damen’s true strength - big enough to have vessels with a nearly finished construction on stock and with no client. “We put a lot of work into developing the design to move the balance to client
oriented - the passengers up on the bridge deck giving them a 360 degree horizon to reduce sea sickness, a bigger accommodation space and a large changing area with storage for spare parts. We’ve also put in cabins for the crews so the vessels can work 24 hours. “Taken together, with this latest fleet enlargement we aim to offer complete O and M solutions to the offshore wind market.” The advantages of purpose built vessels for offshore wind are clear, says Woodcock: “Boats are designed not to hit things, but these boats hit things every day. On a really busy day we can do 50 landings on the turbines, and that’s a lot of collisions. You’ve got a boat that’s weighing anything from 12 tons up to 100 tons when fully loaded, in the case of our new 2610. “And you drive this into a big piece of iron in the middle of the sea. So there’s a lot of engineering that makes sure you can do that day in, day out, no matter the weather conditions. Other points to consider are sea keeping performance, and the manoeuvrability needed to get the boat onto a landing. “We operate just one vessel that is not designed as a wind farm boat, and throughout the industry there are very few wind farm
boats that have been adapted from other industries, simply because it’s quite difficult to do so. “Some designers are still designing CTVs as they designed their workboats - forgetting that the client is hiring the accommodation and not just the boat. “On a tug boat for example, a client hires a boat and its tow winch; on a multi-cat the working deck - without caring what’s inside. On a wind farm boat all the passengers are inside; they need the working deck and a pleasant comfortable area in which to transfer.
CLIENT ORIENTED “And when shipyards move into the wind farm industry they can get that horribly wrong; they are giving the orientation too much to the owner and not enough to the client.” Journey times have clear implications for vessel characteristics and passenger comfort and health, says Woodcock: “For round one and two wind farms in the UK many journeys are less than an hour. Greater Gabbard 20 miles of the coast at Harwich takes a minimum of 90 minutes because the boats are coming out of
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OWS Lowestoft; for Lynn and Inner Dowsing, two miles off Skegness you are looking at two hours because they are coming out of Grimsby. “So you need boats that are comfortable, quiet boats and good sea-keeping. And you need boats that are fast - 20 knots versus one doing 25 knots is a significant time saving, though you won’t notice that on a nearshore wind farm. “And there’s the health issue. The longer the trip the more exposed you become to sea conditions, shock, vibration and noise. Noise and vibration can be very fatiguing, and vibration is not only fatiguing, it’s bad for your health. “You have to give a ride quality, so when they get to work crews can actually work. There have been cases when men have been landed and unable to work because on the crossing they’ve been totally disorientated.”
Born in Leicestershire and growing up in Western Canada, Woodcock came back to the UK when he was 18. After graduating from the Warsash Maritime Centre, Southampton, he went to sea, became a Master Mariner, and after coming ashore moved into ship management in Miami, Bermuda and Holland, where he became a Director at Workships last year. “When I started with the company in 2009 my passport was full; I was in Brazil, Thailand, Singapore and Russia continuously. Now it’s Lowestoft, Grimsby and Boston - all the sunny spots on the English Riviera.”
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Last year Workships Contractors further strengthened its services and presence within the Dutch and German offshore wind markets by establishing a partnership with Frisia Offshore, allowing OWS to expand into Germany, and Frisia Offshore to gain a strong partner outside
the country. “We spent a lot of time last winter identifying partners we could work with, and who we know that with our name on a contract and with their boat fulfilling it, the client would get the OWS standard of service. These are operators we know personally. “We are constantly working with shipyards, and at this moment we are developing a new designer vessel in France. Being Dutch, growth is always cautious. At the same time we are always opportunistic. So if an opportunity comes along we take it.” Meantime OWS and Woodcock are facing up to an alphabet problem. “Since our founding the logo has always had a very distinctive W, and we set about getting a W into the names of our vessels. So we looked at Dutch sandbanks; Wandelaar, Wielingen, West Hinder and Wenduine are all sandbanks. When we get more new boats we are going to have to start scratching our heads.”
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