Havyard’s First Vessel for Offshore Renewables Arrives in Norway

Havyard’s newbuild, a Havyard 832 SOV design (Service Operation Vessel), arrived at the yard in Leirvik last week. This is the first of two vessels that will be built to provide service and maintenance for offshore wind power installations.

Four newbuilds are now being fitted out at the yard. After a month on tow from Turkey, where the hull was built, the vessel was assigned a place in dry dock when it arrived just before the weekend. It is the first of two vessels to be built for the shipping company ESVAGT, a new customer for Havyard.

Havyard, already expert at designing and building vessels for the fishing and offshore oil industry, has now opened the door to a new market: renewable energy.

“The essential thing about this design is that the service technicians board the wind turbines via a heave-compensated walkway, which means it is important that the vessel’s movements are gentle and calm,” explains Arve Helsem Leine, Design Manager at Havyard Design & Solutions. The vessel is specially adapted to its assignments and has workshops and a big aft storeroom for parts and spare parts for the wind turbines. “There are also good facilities on board, such as a cinema, exercise room and game room, to ensure job satisfaction. And, not least, everyone has their own cabin,” says Helsem Leine. The vessel has room for 40 service technicians from Siemens, which is the operator. In addition, the vessel will have a crew of 20.

Its sister vessel will be launched at the yard in Turkey in September and will be towed to Leirvik the same month for further fitting out. “We expect that this design will meet the shipowner’s and the operator’s wishes and requirements and we are confident that there will be demand for more vessels of this kind. Offshore wind turbines are still in their infancy, and here we are involved right from the start,” says Helsem Leine.