Seacat Magic Charts Course for Greater Gabbard

Offshore energy support vessel (OESV) operator Seacat Services has signed a long-term charter for catamaran Seacat Magic with Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm Ltd.

Seacat Magic will support Operations & Maintenance (O&M) activity for the Greater Gabbard service team working at the 504 MW wind farm.

She joins sister vessel Seacat Freedom, which was first deployed to the site in 2017.

Seacat’s OESVs have been operating at Greater Gabbard since 2012, when Seacat Resolute was signed on a long-term charter to support the construction of the wind farm.

From 2017 to March 2020 while in operation at Greater Gabbard, Seacat Freedom performed over 9,200 safe crew transfers to the wind farm. This has been achieved with minimal downtime, and a technical vessel availability of 98.7 per cent, Seacat said.

Seacat Services’ longstanding presence at Greater Gabbard has also brought community benefits, with the vessels manned by local crews wherever possible. Having launched its third OESV apprenticeship scheme in February of this year, Seacat is maintaining a commitment to developing homegrown talent.

”We are driven to provide the highest quality of service to all of our clients, and Greater Gabbard is no exception,” Ian Baylis, Managing Director at Seacat, said.

”The wind farm is a unique and technically challenging project to operate on, and the addition of a capable vessel like Seacat Magic will ensure that O&M activity will continue to meet deadlines safely and efficiently as the project scales up, irrespective of weather conditions.”

The deal comes after Seacat secured its first long-term O&M charter for newly launched catamaran Seacat Rainbow with Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm Ltd (BOWL) in March.

Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm, owned by SSE Renewables, comprises 140 Siemens Gamesa 3.6 MW turbines that went into operation in 2012. The wind farm is located some 23 kilometres off the coast of Suffolk, England.