Tidal Transit Limited to Show off its Fiberglass Catamaran at Seaworks 2011 (UK)

Tidal Transit Limited will be showing off a model of is 20m fibre glass catamaran, the first of which is due in UK waters in Q4 2011, to the visitors of Seaworks in Southampton next week. The boat has been designed by Adam Wright, of Thornham (Norfolk) to meet the specific needs of the offshore wind farm installers and operators.

“We see many crew transfer vessels off the coast of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Suffolk but they tend to spend more time than they should in the harbours at Wells-Next-The-Sea, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Grimsby. The issue is tides and weather. Therefore we are building boats that can accommodate 12 passengers and 3 crew in comfortable berths in a hull designed for stability in the short frequency waves of the North Sea.” Adam Wright, the company’s founder and primary skipper.

Along with Astilleros Mercurio Plastics of Spain, Tidal Transit has designed the ideal O&M vessel for the areas windfarms. Each vessel is able to carry up to 10 tons of spare parts and kit, 10,000 litres of fuel, 6,000 litres of fresh water and 12 passengers while still achieving over 25 knots.

The vessels are MCA (Maritime Costal Agency) Category 1 which will allow the boats to operate up to 150 miles from the nearest safe haven as well as stay out at sea overnight.

Although many of the windfarms that are being built in the area are within the Crown Estates’ 12 nautical mile limit, the effect of the tides limits the amount of days per month that many other boats can operate. Tidal Transit’s boats can bring this gap by accommodating the service technicians over the short tides.

Who is Adam Wright?

Adam Wright set up Norfolk Fishing Trips (www.norfolkfishingtrips.co.uk) in 2005 and has run it successfully as a day charter fishing business to date, running trips out of Brancaster Staithe in the summer and Lowestoft in the winter. Adam’s father is a fisherman so the sea is in the blood. Adam spent 10 years as head chef at 2 of the finest local restaurants on the North Norfolk Coast. With Norfolk Fishing Trips, he combined his love of the sea with his catering skills and offers clients’ memorable days out. The Katie Louise (named after his wife) was built by Gemini Work boats in 2006.

Who is Tidal Transit Ltd?

In January 2011 the business and the assets of Norfolk Fishing Trips were incorporated in to Tidal Transit Limited, a Norfolk registered company. In February, the company raised in excess of £2m in equity financing from Peter Hambro Limited and Leo Hambro joined as commercial director while Adam Wright is Operations Director. On 1 March 2011, TTL confirmed its order with Mercurio (www.mercurioplastics.com) and paid the deposits for 2 new state of the art, 20m crew transfer vessels that can not only carry the 12 passengers in comfort (along with up to 10 tons of cargo) but also provide them with comfortable beds for the night at up to 150 miles offshore through their MCA Cat 1 coding and huge fuel tanks.

What will the boats to be called?

One of the strict conditions of the deal between Adam and his new investor was that he should have the naming rights to the first three new boats. He has three daughters and as the existing boat is named after his wife, the first 3 will be after his daughters. His third daughter, and Leo’s two, should not be too worried that TTL has ‘only’ ordered 2 boats so far as the company has rights to a further 8 builds from Mercurio which TTL hopes to be able to take up over the next 3 years. Adam also has a son and TTL can only hope that the sea runs through his blood too, enough for him to join the family business when he is older. Katie Louise has been liveried with Tidal Transit logos and has recently been on survey charter in Grimsby working with Subacoustech (www.Subacoustech.com) on Centrica’s Lincs project. The first boat, to be named Ginny Louise, should be in UK waters in October 2011 with the second, Eden Rose, following close behind in January 2012.

Who are Mercurio Plastics?

The designs for the new boats came through many negotiations with Martin Antrobus, owner of Work Boat Sales (www.workboatsales.com) and UK Agent for Mercurio and the Mercurio team in Cartagena. Tidal Transit Limited will be sharing a stand with Mercurio at Seaworks 2011.

Information about Mercurio

MERCURIO PLASTICS SHIPYARD was founded in 1997 in Spain, since then we have constructed dozens of vessels in composites up to 35 m length for any kind of purpose always under client requirements and at a very high standard quality. Our building procedure uses the latest techniques in composite manufacturing such as vacuum infusion process, gel coaters and putty dispenser machines.

• Mercurio Shipyard is developing innovative ships around the world. Recognized for its expert capabilities in design, manufacture and maintenance, Mercurio has endeavoured to greatly establish a name based on product quality to its highest level.

• With a primary aim of producing high quality ships for commercial and leisure purposes, customer satisfaction is paramount in our pursuit of excellence. We endeavour to facilitate continual improvement in design and manufacturing processes.

• Mercurio has been significantly distinguished in the European marine industry. Our well designed and strong vessels have generated media attention and public.

Mercurio specialises in the design and build of composites workboats for applications including wind farm service vessels, crewboats, ferries, RoRo, rescue boats, tenders, supply vessels, shuttle, pilot boats, fishing boats, wind farm support boats, oil spill response boats, landing craft, research vessels, diving support, and workboats for the aquaculture industry, frigo cargo and leisure catamarans

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Source: tidal-transit, June 14, 2011