Esvagt Dana readying for Dutch, Belgian offshore wind farms

The Esvagt Dana Service Operation Vessel (SOV) is currently preparing for assignments at the Borssele III & IV and the Northwester offshore wind farms in the Netherlands and Belgium, respectively.

This is according to SMST, which shared an update on the SOV via social media on 17 September.

“In these wind farms more height is required of the SMST gangway that is doing its walk-to-work duties on board the Esvagt Dana. Last week, the SMST service engineers were present in Esbjerg for readjusting the setup to 1,5 stacking modules. The vessel is now up and running for its next operations”, SMST said.

The SOV is being deployed for operations at the Dutch and Belgian offshore wind farms following a campaign on the Baltic 2 offshore wind farm in Germany.

Esvagt Dana, whose crane can lift three tonnes at 20 metres, was originally designed and built as a crew change vessel and has slightly less cargo space on deck than the other ESVAGT SOVs, according to its owner and operator.

“Depending on the work you need to do, the lack of space can be limiting factor, and were you to do a lot of repairs in a wind farm and in need of additional storage for spare parts, then it becomes an issue. But for servicing and more standard campaigns the vessel works very well. We have been operating at full capacity with close to 40 personnel on board in the last weeks, and with an eye for optimising the usage of space, the operation has run smoothly”, Daniel Fisher, Operations Manager for Baltic 2 at Siemens Gamesa, was quoted as saying in ESVAGT’s press release from 27 August.

Zamakona Shipyard in Bilbao, Spain, delivered the vessel to ESVAGT in the summer of 2018, after which Esvagt Dana started its charter with GE Renewable Energy at the Merkur offshore wind farm in the German North Sea.

Following the Merkur assignment, the SOV worked in Denmark at the Horns Rev 3 offshore wind farm under a contract with Vattenfall.

The vessel was also hired as a diving ship and base for Vår Energi’s operations in the Goliat field.