Efficiency from Quayside to Seabed

While the oil and gas industry is slowing down, the world of renewables, specifically offshore wind, is picking up. This leads to many companies diversifying their product portfolio where required. Not unlike Jumbo, who are venturing further into the offshore wind market.

Schiedam based heavy-lift company Jumbo have decided to adapt their multifunctional, dynamic positioned, heavy-lift crane vessel, Fairplayer, to better assist customers in the offshore wind market.

Roddy Lafontaine, manager commerce and engineering at Jumbo, says: “The offshore wind market shows a huge potential and we believe the industry matures to a sustainable business. This is why we have engineered this conversion to collaborate with the industry and to enable our clients to build scale for their wind farm developments at market leading cost.”

The privately-owned company was founded in 1968 and has a fleet of 14 heavy lift vessels working worldwide.

“Working offshore means dealing with harsh environments. We offer fully integrated transport and installation solutions (at fixed lump sums) whereby all interface risks are managed from quayside to seabed. As I mentioned, we want to work on pushing back costs to eventually be able to build wind farms without use of subsidy,” Lafontaine said.

“Our aim is to play an increased role in installing foundations in shallow waters, be it monopiles, jackets or TPs, but of course also for deeper waters and heavier constructions of piles and jackets. One of the key elements of our vessel is the economical transit speed, which can save both cost and time when operating in challenging places. By having a fleet of vessels, we can offer a more robust overall schedule and the ability to do more work in the right season through parallel offshore execution.”

Conversion of the Fairplayer

The conversion will entail, among others, installing 20-metre crane pedestal extensions for the existing 900Te mast cranes allowing an 1,800Te tandem offshore lift.

The main deck of the vessel will increase up to 4,000 square metres of deck space. Basic engineering for the modification is completed in the third quarter of 2016.The conversion is scheduled to be completed a year later end 2017. The conversion will be done in close co-operation with Huisman, also based in Schiedam, the Netherlands.

In recent years, Jumbo became increasingly active in the Offshore Wind Industry. They have installed many Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) foundations for the largest offshore wind farms to date such as Greater Gabbard, Anholt and Butendiek. What can they offer the offshore wind industry?

Lafontaine said: “With our track record and technical expertise and the converted Fairplayer, we can offer monopile foundations and installation of transition pieces in relatively shallow water environments. In deeper waters, our unique DP2 Heavy Lift Crane vessels can provide efficient solutions for jacket foundations with either driven- or suction piles and as wind farms are developing into deeper water we can draw on our subsea and mooring installation experience, much of this gained in the oil and gas industry, to work on unique T&I solutions for floating wind farm structures anchored to the seabed.”

With the conversion of the Fairplayer, Jumbo may go on to play an even greater role in the offshore wind industry.