Wind energy – crew transfer
The innovative and newly set up ship builder Wallaby Boats, based in Kappeln, Germany, has decided in the investment to build the world’s first crew transfer vessel/daughter craft (CTV/DC) with a suspension system.
The demonstrator WB-18 Wind will be an 18 meter vessel equipped with the ‘WB wind-module’ in order to act as a CTV in the offshore wind industry.
The wind-module can be modified to sit and optionally sleep a variable number of industrial personnel. The normal arrangement sits 23 industrial personnel in total, 18 persons in the module cabin plus five in the cockpit area.
Milestones on the way to Final Investment Decision (FID) were the high interest of various offshore wind developers in cooperation with The Carbon Trust and finally the support from EnBW who is committing to the development of the WB-18 demonstrator with funds and a long-term WINDTIME charter following the Sea Acceptance Test (SAT).
The demonstrator will be owned by the yard Wallaby Boats and operated under a SHIPMAN contract by OFFCON, also from Kappeln.