Company Member Focus: Commercial Rib Charter

From local start-up to major contractor, Commercial Rib Charter tackles a range of projects

Established in 2001, Commercial Rib Charter is the trading name of Solent Rib Charters Ltd. which was started in the Solent providing bareboat and corporate charters of 8-meter Open Ribs. After ten years of steady growth in the local area, culminating with a contract to provide over 60 Ribs for the 2012 London Olympic Games, we began seeing a demand for our Open Ribs on commercial projects, providing safety and guard boat services. Since 2012, growth in our commercial sector has been strong and we have built and purchased a range of vessels to explore wider opportunities. Today, we have ten Cabin Ribs, three catamarans and a ground-breaking ‘amphibious crew transfer vessel’ currently in build, supplemented by a healthy fleet of over 25 Open Ribs.

The vast majority of our commercial clients are involved in offshore renewables and most of our work is centred around providing vessels for wind farm crew transfers, interconnector cable landings, offshore dive support, surveying, and safety boat services. We operate out of our office and workshop in Lymington, Hampshire,

“With two IMCA approved dive support vessels in the fleet, Commercial Rib Charter can quickly provide the vessels you need for a number of applications…”

with around 25 full time staff.

In 2020 we purchased ‘CRC Sentinel’, our largest vessel ever; it is a shallow draft, high speed dive boat, complete with a 4-point anchor spread and an integrated three diver air/nitrox panel, HP compressor, 125m umbilicals and a slick video recording suite. Sentinel also boasts a survey pole and retains full seating for 12 pax for crew transfer duties making her a very versatile vessel. Sentinel’s first significant dive project began earlier this year, working for a Belgian company on a five-month contract to assist with four cable landings for the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm. Sentinel was chartered as a truly multi-purpose catamaran, carrying out nearshore and offshore surveying with a multibeam echo sounder, crew transfers to various installation vessels, and dive support during the cable landings themselves.

Sentinel’s main role during these landings was to position the vessel close to the floating cable as it is winched ashore from the cable laying vessel. Divers are then sent down to cut floats and ensure the cable is sunk in a predetermined corridor, often with a tolerance of less than 10 meters. One of Sentinel’s most attractive features is its ability to move along the cable route using its four winches rather than the engines, providing a swift and safe method for divers to continue working whilst reducing the amount of surfacing and repositioning of the anchors.

With two IMCA approved dive support vessels in the fleet, Commercial Rib Charter can quickly provide the vessels you need for a number of applications, including ship maintenance, dock and quay repairs, cable burial, underwater cutting and monopile inspections. Contact us on 01590 607103 or email us at info@commercialribcharter.co.uk with your requirements.

CRC SENTINEL – SPECIFICATION • Length 19m, Beam 6.7m, Draft 1.2m; • Machinery – 2x MAN D2862 V12s with Rolls-

Royce waterjets; • Generators – 2x Cummins Onan 13.5kVa 230V; • Equipment – 1x Bonfiglioli P7200 Deck

Crane; • Speed – 22kts cruising, 29kts sprint; • Mooring – 4x Hercules Hydraulics winches, 4x 200kg HHP anchors, 4x 450m Dyneema; • Panel – IMCA DO23 3 diver air/nitrox spread; • Recording – AxSub Rackmount and AxView

Blackbox with 3x Cameras and Lights; • Communications – C-Tecnics C-Phone 4R; • Power – 1x APC Smart-UPS; • Compressor – Integrated HP Coltri

MCH11EM; • Umbilicals – 3x Fibron 125m; • Cylinders – 6x 200 Bar 50L (air), 8x 200 Bar 50L (nitrox) and 2x 200 Bar 50L stand-by.