ON THE WAYS CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY AT WORKBOAT YARDS
Senesco, Blount Boats building CTVs for Ørsted and Eversource
WindServe Marine
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ive new crew transfer vessels for WindServe Marine, Staten Island, N.Y., and American Offshore Services (AOS), Boston, will be built at two shipyards, the companies announced in late January. WindServe Marine’s affiliate shipyard, Senesco Marine in North Kingstown, R.I., will build three 88'6"×29'6" vessels, and AOS is partnering with Blount Boats, Warren, R.I., to build two 101' vessels. The boats are designed to handle offshore conditions at wind turbine arrays about 15 miles from southern New England, transporting technicians and materials between local ports and the project sites of Revolution Wind, South Fork Wind and Sunrise Wind. “Rhode Island knows offshore wind and we are proud to be delivering even more jobs to the Ocean State’s marine trades to build these new crew vessels,” David Hardy, CEO of Ørsted Offshore North America, said in a
Five new 88' crew transfer vessels will be delivered in the next two years.
Construction is expected to start early this year at Senesco on the WindServe vessels and at Blount Boats on the AOS vessels. All five vessels will be delivered over the next two years to provide crew transfer support during the construction phases of the Ørsted and Eversource joint venture’s three
joint statement announcing plans for the support fleet. “Our continuing commitment to Rhode Island shipbuilders, together with our selection of first-rate regional vessel operators, is just the latest example of our work to build a domestic supply chain to support the growing offshore wind industry.”
A
merican Cruise Lines in January revealed the details of Project Blue — a new fleet of go-anywhere ships for the U.S. market. The project calls for the construction of 12 identical sisterships that will more than double the U.S. capacity for domestic coastal cruises. ACL said the new 241'x56', 109-passenger boats will feature a hybrid catamaran design and will operate exclusively in the U.S., with a focus on small towns and close-to-home adventures. “Project Blue started as a design challenge to create a boat small enough for New England harbors and stable enough for the Alaska Inside Passage, with a draft shallow enough
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for the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway,” said Charles B. Robertson, president and CEO of ACL. “These boats can run almost anywhere, and because there will be 12 of them, they will be deployed all over the United States.” Like all of ACL’s new ships, the Project Blue fleet will be built by ACL’s Chesapeake Shipbuilding, Salisbury, Md. The first two Project Blue vessels are under construction and due for delivery in 2023. In December, Blakeley BoatWorks, Mobile, Ala., delivered the 70’x28’, 1,600-hp Green Wave, a fully compliant, Subchapter M inland pushboat, to Plimsoll Marine, LaPlace, La. The vessel will operate within the Cooper Consolidated
American Cruise Lines
BOATBUILDING BITTS
241' passenger vessel for near-shore operating versatility
LLC fleeting footprint, the largest fleeting footprint on the Lower Mississippi River. All three companies are part of the Cooper Group of Companies. Designed by Farrell & Norton Naval Architects, the towboat is powered by
www.workboat.com • MARCH 2022 • WorkBoat