South Boats Launches ‘MCS Zephyr’ Latest Wind Farm Support Vessel (UK)

South Boats Special Projects Ltd. announces the launch and commissioning of its 44th offshore wind farm crew transfer vessel, ‘MCS Zephyr’. The vessel is a South Catamaran 18m and is the first of a two boat order from Maritime Craft Services (Clyde) Ltd. to be delivered.

‘MCS Zephyr’ is the first vessel in the world to be built under survey to DNV 1A1 HSLC R2 Wind Farm Service 1, a new class notation introduced in January 2011. The vessel is also built to UK flag and certified to MCA Category 1.

The ‘MCS Zephyr’ has an LOA of 19.1m, Beam of 7.4m, Draught of 1.1m and a lightship displacement of 38 tonnes. The vessel is configured with an aft of centre wheelhouse providing a 34m2 forward deck capable of carrying up to 8 tonnes of construction and O&M equipment coupled to a 21m2 aft deck capable of carrying a further 2 tonnes of equipment.

Powered by twin MTU 8V2000M72 965mhp diesel engines and coupled to Ultra Dynamics UJ575 water jet units the vessel achieved a sprint speed of nearly 26 knots and is capable of cruising at speeds 24 knots (90% MCR) in arrival condition. A sophisticated hydraulics system driven by both ZF3000 gearboxes powers a Palfinger PK6500 fully folding knuckle boom crane forward, 5 bar 30,000 litre per hour fire pump, 1.5 tonne hydraulic capstan, clutched and braked anchor spool winch, 210 bar 30 litre per minute pressure washer system and a 3.5tm3 8 bar fuel transfer system. The integrated system offers full redundancy from two supplies. An ONAN 13.5kW 230V AC generator set supplies power to the vessels ring main and AC services.

This latest generation vessel has a totally reworked interior arrangement with the entrance door forward to stbd into a changing and storage lobby giving plenty of space for changing with a hanging area. In the saloon there are six crew seats to port arranged as three rows of two and six further crew seats to stbd arranged as two rows of three seats, each row with a work table and full satellite and 3G wireless internet throughout. A twin screen entertainment system is fitted with TV/DVD and forward looking cameras.

Aft is a separate turbine spares area and workshop with access from the saloon and aft from deck. Plentiful lockers give access for spares turbine and ships spare parts.

The wheelhouse features the first South Boats Integrated Bridge, developed with MAP and Boat Electrics & Electronics using extensive BONING equipment. The full MED approved equipment pack includes twin Furuno Radars, full ECDIS, FLIR thermal imaging camera, 10 channel recording CCTV, Satellite Compass, Class A AIS, twin Class A DSC VHF Radio’s, HF Radio and Iridium Openport. The integrated bridge features full SCAMS (ship control and monitoring system) allowing the skipper to select what is displayed on the five 19” displays using one of the twin ‘I-Drive’ style controllers. The bridge has heated forward screens to eliminate misting and overhead windows to give clear view of the transition piece.

All windows in the vessel are fully double glazed to eliminate condensation to provide the technicians with clear visibility out of the vessel and free standing air intake and air extraction systems for the machinery spaces and high tech anti noise and vibration matting minimise noise and vibration to the passenger saloon areas.

‘MCS Zephyr’ has started her contract on the BARD Offshore Wind Farm off the German coast. A sister vessel, ‘MCS Maestro’, will be delivered following its attendance at the Seawork 2011 exhibition.

Ben Colman, Technical Director of South Boats Special Projects Ltd. Quote “We are delighted to build our first vessel for Maritime Craft Services (Clyde) Ltd. We are shortly to deliver the second vessel and we hope to extend our working relationship with further vessels. The ‘MCS Zephyr’ is an exceptional vessel, notable by being the first in the world to DNV’s new Wind Farm Service 1 notation and I am sure will prove very popular on any wind farm project.”

South Boats continues to build 20 wind farm crew transfer vessels per annum and the new generation 16m, 17m, 19m, 24m and 30m designs are now populating the range and those not yet started will come on line over the next few months. All of new generation vessels feature modular superstructures, integrated systems, options for secondary access systems and new bow fender system. With 5 years experiencing building 44 wind farm vessels for 13 operators, having worked on over 25 projects there is no doubt that South Boats catamarans remain the vessel of industry choice.

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Source: southboatssp, April 26, 2011