Jill Departs for First Offshore Wind Work

Fred. Olsen Windcarrier’s jack-up vessel Jill has departed from the Port of Frederikshavn in Denmark to begin supporting suction bucket installation tests on a project.

The work, which will be carried out in cooperation with Universal Foundation, represents the vessel’s first offshore wind assignment.

According to Fred-Olsen Windcarrier, the aim of the project is to decrease offshore wind foundation construction and installation costs in support of the levelized cost of energy reduction.

The Danish company recently signed a long-term time charter with Falcon Global for Jill, after which the vessel began its cross-Atlantic journey from the United States to Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Jill is equipped with 102m long legs, a rack and pinion hydraulic jacking system, and a large cargo deck. It was built to accommodate 132 persons in addition to the crew but this will be limited to a total of 80 persons in Europe.

The jack-up is capable of transporting turbine components of up to 5MW and can carry major components such as gearboxes, generators, transformers, blades and full drive trains for O&M jobs.