Gulf Marine Services’ Self Elevating Support Vessel (SESV) GMS Endeavour recently berthed at the Port of Blyth, where it will be mobilising for operations at the Hornsea Project One offshore wind farm.
Ørsted contracted Gulf Marine Services UK to provide two offshore accommodation vessels for the 1.2GW UK offshore wind farm in April 2017. GMS Evolution is expected to join its sister vessel at the Port of Blyth shortly.
Mobilisation works for GMS Endeavour encompass, among other things, installation of a large Osbit access tower with integrated boat landing for crew transfer vessels.
By deploying the two GMS vessels and equipping one of them with a boat landing system, Ørsted will create an offshore hub at the Hornsea One site, allowing technicians working on the three substations and a reactive compensation station (RCS), and those working on other areas of the wind farm – such as the wind turbines – to stay on the same vessel.
For Port of Blyth, this is the first time it is hosting a jack-up vessel. “Seeing GMS Endeavour berthed in South Harbour is a great milestone and the culmination of a lot of hard work from our technical and marine teams in proving the viability of jack up vessels at Blyth. We’re delighted to be working with Gulf Marine Services and look forward to welcoming more of their fleet in the future,” said Martin Lawlor , Port of Blyth Chief Executive.
Offshore construction recently started at the Hornsea Project One site with first monopiles installed . Along with three offshore substations and a RCS, the project will comprise 174 Siemens 7MW wind turbines, expected to start operating in 2020.