Race Bank SOV Getting SMST Crane

Dutch SMST has been awarded a contract for the delivery of a 3D motion compensated crane (MCC) for Østensjø Rederi’s new Service Operation Vessel (SOV) which will be deployed at the 580MW Race Bank wind farm offshore UK.

The SMST motion compensated crane is designed to transfer equipment to an offshore wind turbine using 3D motion compensation. The crane is able to position the cargo onto the wind turbine or substations, despite movements of the vessel due to waves and currents.

The SOV, designed by Rolls-Royce in close cooperation with Østensjø Rederi, will start servicing Race Bank from its home base in the United Kingdom as of September 2017. The vessel will serve as ”a mothership for wind farm maintenance work,” SMST said in a statement.

The SOV, currently under construction at the Spanish shipyard Astilleros Gondan, will carry up to 60 people to Race Bank.

Race Bank, owned and developed by DONG Energy, is located some 29 kilometres off Blakeney Point on the North Norfolk Coast, and a similar distance from the Lincolnshire coast at Chapel St. Leonards.

Back in April, DONG announced the start of works to connect the wind farm’s offshore cables to the cables on land at a landfall site north of Sutton Bridge.

Offshore construction is due to begin later this year and the wind farm is expected to become operational in 2018.

Race Bank comprises 91 6MW Siemens wind turbines spread over an array of 75 square kilometres.