Danish partners ESVAGT and Hvide Sande Shipyard are collaborating to create larger and stronger transfer boats, with room to transport more technicians and cargo for the offshore wind industry.
Many years ago, ESVAGT introduced safe transfer boats (STB) to operate as daughter craft from their service operation vessels (SOV) to transfer technicians in offshore wind farms.
Now, the new STB15, developed with Hvide Sande Shipyard for use on the Hornsea offshore wind farms, will be able to transfer more technicians and load even more cargo.
The STB15s will be able to transfer cargo and technicians to higher seas than before, which will expand the potential of using the boat for even more. They also has a stabilizer system, which moderates the boat's movements and is highly effective
"Our SOV concept with transfer boats has shown its potential and created the need for solving even more tasks with the STBs," said Søren Westphal, Senior Project Manager at ESVAGT and responsible for boat development at the company.
COO Jeppe Hoff from Hvide Sande Shipyard is both 'proud and honored' to collaborate on the project, said, "We are pleased to build on a good and trusting agreement with ESVAGT to develop the next generation of STBs for the wind industry. The collaboration with ESVAGT on the predecessor STB12 was a mutually benefitting and developing process—ESVAGT is very keen to incorporate the experience of seafarers' everyday life into the boat design, which makes the task interesting for all of us."