Northumberland News

UK-based offshore vessel owner North Star this week held a naming ceremony for the Grampian Tyne service operation vessel (SOV) which will be deployed at work at the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm in the UK.The vessel was named at a ceremony at Equinor’s Port of Tyne base in the North East of England (UK), ahead of its early handover to the Dogger Bank Wind Farm.The traditional good luck celebration, involving the customary champagne bottle being smashed against the hull of the ship…

North Star’s new UK-built hybrid-powered daughter craft, specifically designed for the offshore wind market, has been launched at a naming ceremony held at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht club in Lowestoft, adjacent to the firm’s regional operations hub. The vessel was christened ‘Grace Darling’ in honor of a famous lighthouse keeper’s daughter from the North East of England who risked her life in 1838 to save the stranded survivors of a wrecked merchant ship traveling from Hull to Dundee.

Port of Blyth, one of the UK’s leading offshore energy support hubs, and its partner, Energy Central, has supported the announcement from the UK Government of a 10-week consultation on its ‘freeports vision’.The Port of Blyth and businesses working on the estuary could benefit from the establishment of UK Freeports and recognizes the potential benefits of a free trade zone could bring to the region, particularly given the development of Energy Central in Blyth.Designed to create the perfect environment for inward investment from the offshore and renewable energy sector, Energy Central is a unique partnership between the Port, Northumberland County Council…

The world’s longest offshore wind turbine blade has arrived in Northumberland, UK to be tested at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult site.The 107-metre blade will be used on the most powerful wind turbine in commercial development – the 12MW Haliade-X from GE Renewable Energy.The blade will undergo a full range of advanced testing procedures, demonstrating its ability to withstand peak wind conditions and simulating its readiness for years of operation at sea. Three other 107 metre blades will soon be shipped to a prototype site in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.Shipping and testing the first components of the Haliade-X 12 MW keeps GE Renewable Energy on track to commercialise the technology in 2021.

U.S. conglomerate General Electric will test the world's largest wind turbine in a facility in northeast England, it said on Tuesday. GE Renewable Energy, the renewable arm of the U.S. firm, and the British government-funded Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult signed a five-year agreement to test GE's Haliade-X 12 megawatt (MW) turbine in Blyth, Northumberland. "This is an important agreement because it will enable us to prove Haliade-X in a faster way by putting it under controlled and extreme conditions," John Lavelle, president & CEO of GE's Offshore Wind business said in a statement. Britain is aiming to be a leader in offshore wind technology and its capacity could grow by five times current levels to 30 gigawatts by 2030…

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines is proud to introduce a very unique cruise experience for Summer 2015, aboard its 880-guest ship Boudicca, the like of which guests will never have seen nor heard of before! Fred. Olsen will be offering an exclusive sailing, created around secrecy and suspense, with Boudicca’s 16-night D1516 'Poison, Murder & Mystery Cruise', departing from Rosyth (Edinburgh) on 10th July 2015, linking the Duchess of Northumberland’s 'Poison Gardens' at Alnwick Castle – which starred as ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry’ in the Harry Potter films – and that of Mr. Fred. Olsen Senior in Guimar, Tenerife. Fred. Olsen unveiled this participative 'murder mystery' cruise at an exclusive VIP launch at The Tower of London, hosted by The Duchess of Northumberland and Mr. Fred.

The Canadian Ferry Operators Association (CFOA) welcomed today’s announcement of $58 million over two years to support ferries in Eastern Canada. “We are happy to see the government reaffirming its commitment to Canada’s ferries. This is a step in the right direction,” said Serge Buy, CEO of CFOA. This funding will help support ferry operations and assets for three interprovincial ferries: Saint John, NB / Digby, NS (operated by Bay Ferries Ltd); Wood Islands, PEI / Caribou, NS (operated by Northumberland Ferries Ltd) and Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC / Souris, PEI (Operated by C.T.M.A.

Hurricane Arthur weakened on Saturday to leave New England and was felt in parts of southeastern Canada with heavy rains and winds, where he left some 250,000 homes and business premises without power. Arthur weakened to a tropical storm on Saturday morning after landfall in the Outer Banks islands of North Carolina on Thursday night as a Category 2 hurricane, spoiling the plans of tourists on a long weekend for the holiday of Independence Day in the United States. North Carolina reported only minor damage from Hurricane, which quickly moved to the northeast. Arthur-now-post-tropical storm was located near Moncton, New Brunswick, after landfall a second time, this time in Canada, on Saturday afternoon, said the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that dredging operations are expected to resume on Wednesday in the Upper Hudson River. In 2014, dredging will begin south of Schuylerville, New York and proceed south towards Troy. Dredging will also occur in a two-mile section of river near Fort Miller that is not easily accessed by boat. Dredging is being conducted to remove sediment from the river bottom that is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The operator of a coaster ship which grounded in an environmentally sensitive area off the Northumberland coast has been ordered to pay nearly £73,000 in fines and costs after its crew failed to keep a proper lookout. On the evening of March 15, 2013, the MV Danio left Perth, in Scotland, with a cargo of logs, destined for Ghent, in Belgium. The Master was on watch until around midnight when he handed over to the Chief Officer, who had contracted an eye infection after handling a previous ‘dusty’ cargo.

Merseyside industrial engineering firm SeaKing Electrical said it has undergone a major investment in staff training in a bid to drive growth in the marine, offshore and windfarm sectors. The Birkenhead-based company has invested across a number of areas including offshore survival training and working at heights. Staff have undergone rigorous courses at the Offshore Survival Centre at Blackpool and The Fylde College, which is the only site on the U.K.'s west coast to deliver offshore survival training programs.

UK school, the Dr Thomlinson Church of England Middle School from Rothbury, Northumberland, has been named as the winner of the 2013 Rolls-Royce Science Prize; an annual competition which celebrates and rewards excellence in science teaching. Each year, Rolls-Royce awards a total of £120,000 in cash prizes to schools who implement motivational science teaching. 2,000 schools and colleges registered for this year's prize, and the winning school was selected from a group of nine finalists who attended an awards ceremony at London's Science Museum.

The recent announcement that the grounding of MV Danio on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast on March 16 was due to the ship’s Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System (BNWAS) being switched off has been highlighted by Martek as yet another example of the need for password protection on BNWAS. Martek pointed out that the IMO’s BNWAS performance standards set out in MSC.128(75) state that “the means of selecting the Operational Mode and the duration of the Dormant Period…

The MV Danio has certainly had some adventures this year. In March she hit both the BBC and the ITV British news channels when she went aground just off the Farne Islands, an environmentally sensitive area just off the coast of Northumberland. Bad weather made attempts to free the ship impossible for a tense ten days. The Farne Islands is home to puffins and seals, and the M/V Danio was carrying 27 tons of diesel fuel and 1,500 tons of wood. Finally, on March 28th, she was pulled off the rocks by the tugboat Lomax.

Titan Salvage refloated the 262-foot containership M/V Danio from its stricken position on England’s Northumberland after the ship, which was carrying a load of timber and en route to Belgium from Scotland, ran aground at Farne Islands, an environmentally sensitive area, in early March. The onset of severe weather conditions prevented an immediate attempt to tow the Danio from the coastline. Because the Farne Islands – home to thousands of puffins and grey seals, as well as more than 20 bird species – is classified as a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSI)…

Titan Salvage refloated the 262-foot containership M/V Danio from its stricken position on England’s Northumberland coast despite challenging sea and weather conditions. Danio, which was carrying a load of timber and en route to Belgium from Scotland, ran aground at Farne Islands, an environmentally sensitive area, in early March. The onset of severe weather conditions prevented an immediate attempt to tow the Danio from the coastline. Because the Farne Islands – home to thousands of puffins and grey seals…

Following an extensive refit, HMS Portland has become the final Royal Navy Type 23 frigate to be fitted with Thales U.K.’s Sonar 2087, a towed array sonar system that enables warships to hunt submarines at considerable distances and locate them beyond the range from which they can launch an attack. Portland has now returned to service, with a rededication ceremony on March 21. The 12-month multi-million pound refit in Rosyth Royal Dockyard of Portland’s sensors, weapons and systems…

The 'MV Danio' has been successfully re-floated off the Farne Islands, off Northumberland, on the coast of NE England. Checks are still being made but so far there are no reports of any pollution, reports the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. At 04.30 on Saturday 16 March, the MV Danio reported to Humber Coastguard that they had run aground on the Farne Islands. Seahouses RNLI all-weather lifeboat attempted to tow the vessel off the rocks at high water but to no avail. Attempts to re-float the vessel were hampered by difficult weather conditions.

'MV Danio' is stranded on the Blue Caps rocks on an island off the Northumberland coast, with a metre wide hole below the water line. Salvage crews were deciding on Sunday how to rescue an 80m-long ship which ran aground near a lighthouse in an important wildlife haven, reports STV News. The six crew spent the night aboard the ship, which lifeboat crews found had a metre-wide hole below the waterline on the port side near the bow. The vessel is carrying timber, and despite the damage there were no reports of any fuel leaks after she got stuck on the Blue Caps…

The Royal Navy has described how the combination of a Type 23 frigate fitted with Thales UK’s Sonar 2087 and a Merlin helicopter equipped with the Thales FLASH dipping sonar has delivered an outstanding anti-submarine warfare capability. HMS Northumberland, sailing as part of the UK’s Response Force Task Group on the Cougar 12 Mediterranean deployment, recently conducted advanced anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training with a friendly submarine. The exercise involved the ASW surface ships trying to ‘sink’ the hunter-killer submarines…

Alnmaritec, based in Northumberland, is best known for the design and build of commercial workboats. This week though the company officially launched its new ‘Wimbourne Quay Repair Center’ at the historic Port of Blyth site. With 150m of berths / quayside frontage and over 100,000 square feet of covered workshops the new repair center is in a position to provide services to a wide variety of clients, as Managing Director Chris Millman explains, “Alnmaritec has a reputation for providing high quality new build workboats but we can also utilise the enormous depth of expertise within our workforce to undertake all types of boat repair projects. However it’s not just at the 5 acre Blyth site that Alnmaritec provide these repair services. Mr.

More than 3,000 sailors & Royal Marines are geared up for a three-month deployment to the Mediterranean. 'Cougar 12', which begins later this month, will see four warships, one amphibious support ship, a giant ro-ro ferry/transporter, three commando units and helicopters and personnel from eight Fleet Air Arm and Army Air Corps squadrons committed to the three-month deployment – in all more than 3,000 sailors, Royal Marines, soldiers and airmen. They will take part in two large…

Scira Offshore Energy, operator of the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, will utilise a new UK-designed vessel transfer system to provide its wind farm technicians with safe and reliable access to wind turbines in a range of weather conditions. The safe transfer of wind farm technicians from vessels to the turbines is a key challenge for the industry. This new transfer system, known as MaXcess and produced by Northumberland-based OSBIT Power Limited, has been chosen for Sheringham Shoal following extensive trials, including at Statoil’s Hywind demonstration floating wind turbine in Norway.