Alfa Lift out of dry dock, crane installation set for April

OHT’s new build vessel Alfa Lift has been floated out of the dry dock on 28 February at China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) shipyard in Jiangsu, China, where the vessel’s main crane components are set to arrive from Germany next month.

Work will now continue on the steel and internal fit-out on the moored vessel, including the mechanical completion of systems, with the heavy lift crane’s slewing column and the A-frame scheduled to leave Liebherr’s facility in Rostock, Germany, in the coming days.

“This is an important milestone that brings Alfa Lift one step closer to entering service and helping to satisfy the ever-growing global demand for custom-built offshore wind installation vessels”, said Torgeir Ramstad, CEO of OHT.

The specialist heavy installation vessel, designed for installing the next generation XXL offshore wind foundations, will be delivered at the end of this year or in early 2022.

CMHI, which is constructing Alfa Lift under an order it received from OHT in July 2018, cut the first steel on 1 March 2019. In November that year, the vessel was already selected to work on its first project: the transport and installation of monopile foundations and transition pieces at Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B wind farms in the UK.

Alfa Lift‘s crane will have a maximum lifting capacity of 3,000 tonnes at 30 metres and 1,000 tonnes at 76 metres outreach. The 216.3-metre vessel will also have a 10,000+ m² “smart deck” that can carry up to 14 giant monopiles per trip, and will be fully submersible to a depth of 14.66 metres.

Designed by OHT in close cooperation with Ulstein Design & Solutions and DNV GL, Alfa Lift will be capable of installing all types of bottom-fixed offshore wind foundations and will also transport and install topsides and subsea modules, in addition to other heavy cargoes within oil and gas.