IWS Fleet, a subsidiary of Integrated Wind Solutions (IWS), has booked a new deal in its charter backlog for two of its Skywalker-class commissioning service operation vessels (CSOVs), which are set to work throughout the entire 2027.
With the new contract(s), the company has secured 830 days of additional charter backlog, including 191 optional days extending well into 2028, IWS Fleet said on 5 December.
The new charters are expected to commence in Q4 2026 and Q1 2027 for an existing client, the company said, leaving the client and the project(s) undisclosed.
If the optional days are exercised, IWS estimates the contract will boost its charter backlog by around EUR 35 million, a roughly 35 per cent increase compared with the backlog at end-Q3 2025.
This follows the company’s announcement from 3 December that the recently delivered vessel IWS Sunwalker had secured a 70-day fixed charter extension in Q1 2026, thereby filling a gap in its schedule, and that the fleet had contracted 100 per cent of available vessel-days for Q4 2025.
The vessel owner took delivery of IWS Sunwalker in September and signed the vessel’s first charter contract, as well as a contract extension for IWS Starwalker, the following month.
When accounting for extension options and required repositioning days, IWS said all available days in H1 2026 are also committed.
With the latest contracts now secured, IWS Fleet say that about 56 per cent of the available vessel-days in 2027 are booked, including the newly added charters and optional days.
Last year, IWS Fleet signed a multi-year frame agreement with Siemens Gamesa for up to three of its Skywalker-class CSOVs to be deployed on offshore turbine commissioning projects in Northern Europe.
The agreement carries a minimum commitment of about 1,278–1,300 vessel-days and a revenue backlog of EUR 51–55 million.
The first CSOV in IWS Skywalker series , IWS Skywalker, was delivered by China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) in 2023 and was soon after deployed on the Dogger Bank Wind Farm in the UK.