With an increasing number of companies needing lights and buoys for short term projects or suffering budgetary constraints, the UK’s leading supplier of Aids to Navigation, Hydrosphere, is expanding to cater for demand with the launch of a new rental service.
The new service is already proving popular with wind farms – so far Hydrosphere Rentals Ltd has supplied six JET 9000 Q HV Cardinal buoys to Fluor, the principal contractor for the Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm project and a further eight JET 9000 Q HV buoys to SCIRA, the developer of Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm.
“Wind farms are ideal sites for rental buoys and lights,” said John Caskey, Hydrosphere MD . “Contractors often need temporary navigation aids for short-term, project based deployments, marking sites while construction is underway. We’ve designed our rentals to be as flexible as possible for our customers – our minimum rental contract is just three months, which of course can be extended.”
Mr Caskey added: “We are experiencing a lot of interest in rentals from potential clients. It is a growing area, in particular with round three wind farms. We are also talking to clients in the dredging and surveying industries together with other companies who need to temporarily mark sites.”
The advantage for clients is that there are fixed monthly costs with maintenance and servicing of the product included. If repairs are needed, Hydrosphere has easy access spare parts and replacements, providing peace of mind to contractors who have strict operating regulations to comply with.
“In the case of Greater Gabbard, Fluor had to comply with a 97% operating availability cycle required by the General Lighthouse Authorities so our service provides an efficient arrangement,” said Mr Caskey .
Hydrosphere is also in discussion with harbour masters about renting and leasing buoys, lights, sinkers and chains for their for ports and harbours, as budget restraints mean they may not be able to buy the products they require.
Supplying highly reliable and robust products at a cost-effective, monthly cost, Hydrosphere’s rental service is an ideal solution for keeping harbours safe. Their comprehensive range of rental products includes navigation lights, buoys, data buoy platforms, chains and sinkers. Lights have a 1-5NM range and are all able to exhibit standard IALA flash characters; navigation buoys and data buoy platforms are available from 3.0m to 1.2m hull diameter.
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Press release, January 29, 2013; Image: Hydrosphere