Vestdavit has signed a multiple davit contract with Esvagt, according to the company's release.
Danish shipowner Esvagt earlier this year has announced the order at Turkey’s Cemre Shipyard of the world’s first SOV to operate on green fuels under a joint newbuild project with compatriot offshore wind operator Ørsted.
Powered by batteries and dual-fuel engines, the 93-metre long vessel will be capable of sailing on renewable e-methanol produced from wind energy and biogenic carbon, leading to a significant annual reduction of CO2 emissions. The SOV is lined up to work at Hornsea 2 - the world’s largest offshore wind farm - off the UK’s east coast after scheduled delivery in late 2024.
Vestdavit is now participating in this ground-breaking project to decarbonise offshore wind operations after being selected by Esvagt to provide a total of five davit systems for the vessel - two large FF-30000 dual-point workboat davits featuring a unique solution for flexible hook distance, as well as a pair of L-3500 liferaft davits and one PLRH-5000 davit for fast rescue craft.
The FF-30000 system, with heavyweight lifting capacity of 25,000 kilograms, has been specially adapted from an existing Vestdavit design to handle Esvagt’s newly in-house developed Safe Transfer Boat 15 (STB15), a workboat that is longer, wider and heavier than existing such craft used in the offshore wind sector.
The STB15 has a length of 15 metres, versus the industry standard of 12 metres, and is intended to provide a more stable and comfortable working platform for technicians servicing wind turbines, thus giving operational benefits.
The solution was to adapt the so-called F-frame (FF) system that comprises a large frame with no structure behind or underneath the daughter craft, which allows for greater flexibility in the shape and volume of the boat being handled, with the main structure aft/forward of the boat.
In addition, the FF-30000 has two lifting points for dual-point lifting of the daughter craft with a dual-winch system consisting of two winches each with autonomous tension function so they can operate independently of each other.
The smartest feature of the system is the flexible hook distance function whereby the aft lifting wire can be adjusted forward to cater for smaller boats with a narrower hook distance.
This enables the system also to operate as a single-point davit from the aft lifting point to bring onboard the smaller and more available STB12 workboat as a temporary replacement for the STB15 if the latter needs to be serviced.