UK: Alicat and South Boats Launch Two WFSV’s

On Wednesday 29th May 2013, Alicat Workboats Ltd & South Boats IOW Ltd celebrated a double milestone in production with the launch of two new WFSV’s on the same day.

On the Isle of Wight, the latest vessel built at the yard for Seacat Services took to the water to begin extensive sea trials, before deployment on a major European offshore wind farm in July.

The South Boats IOW built ‘Seacat Defender’ is a DNV Class 24 metre, aluminium catamaran, powered by MTU 12V 2000M72 engines producing 2900HP enabling the vessel to operate in extremely challenging weather conditions. The vessel is also the third 24 metre specialist craft to have been built for Seacat Services in the last eighteen months and fifth overall.

“As the demands of the European offshore wind industry continue to develop and evolve, so too do the challenges placed on existing specialised vessels and their crews”, said Ian Baylis, Managing Director of Seacat Services.

 “Developers and project owners are increasingly looking for class-certified vessels that can operate in the widest possible weather windows, that provide a safe platform for personnel operations, and that have the capacity to manage and deliver larger cargo loads.”

Meanwhile, on the east coast at Alicat Workboats’ Great Yarmouth marine base, the builders were simultaneously rolling out a new state of the art, 22 metre aluminium catamaran as it enters the final phase of construction. The vessel is boat number 16 for the East Anglian boat builders and is the latest design to come from Australian naval architects Global Marine Design (GMD).

Built to DNV Class, upon the proven hull form of previous Alicat Workboats, the high speed transfer vessel has a completely new deck layout which includes an island wheelhouse. The craft benefits from large fore and aft decks and is powered by Caterpillar C32 engines. The resiliently mounted wheelhouse is purposely designed for the maximum comfort of those passengers assigned to longer transit times, with noise and vibration kept to an absolute minimum. This sturdy vessel will also outperform others in some of the harshest conditions, providing operators with one of the safest and durable WFSV’s available. With this great new look, and designed using the latest R & D, the company has produced a vessel tailored for round three use across Europe.

 “As the industry gains both experience and momentum, operators are becoming more aware of what they need a vessel to do. Through tireless networking and research, we have designed a new range of vessels that has both direct influence from actual operators and a huge amount of technical experience that our organisation has in this area.”, said Steve Thacker, General Manager of Alicat Workboats.

“I think many of our customers are surprised by our professionalism and capabilities when they first deal with us. We put it down to the fact that most other boat builders in this industry started on small vessels and are now starting to build larger ones, whereas our long history from this yard is the reverse. We have traditionally built larger vessel from this yard and have now condensed it down to the smaller craft within this sector. We just deal with the smaller vessels with a ‘large vessel’ mentality”.

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Press release, May 30, 2013; Image: alicatworkboats