Swansea News

Swansea-based HST Marine, a Purus Wind company, is using Reygar’s BareFLEET technology to understand and report on the performance of its hybrid Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs), and reduce emissions.The company currently has four hybrid CTVs in operation with three more soon to enter service, all of which have BareFLEET installed. These vessels are a mix of both controllable and fixed pitch propeller systems that take power from either a high-efficiency electric motor or the main engine…

Singapore-based boat builder Strategic Marine has commissioned a study to compare the efficiency of traditional diesel-powered and hybrid-powered crew transfer vessels (CTV).The study, to be conducted by the Maritime Energy and Sustainable Development Centre of Excellence (MESD CoE) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), aims to help the company expand its knowledge and expertise of sustainable solutions for the sector.The commissioned study will assess the difference in energy and emissions profiles between company-built diesel-powered and hybrid-powered CTVs.

Strategic Marine unveiled a new shipyard facility located on JTC’s waterfront site at 5 Benoi Road in western Singapore. The ceremony also saw the delivery of Southeast Asia’s first hybrid crew transfer vessel (CTV), and the unveiling of Strategic Marine’s fourth-generation fast crew boat (FCB).The new facility features a 5,000-DWT dry dock measuring 105m in length, 18.5m in width, and 8m in depth as well as a 6,000 DWT slipway.As part of the opening ceremony, the hybrid CTV, HST Swansea, was delivered to its new owner, UK-based HST Marine, along with its sistervessel, HST Tynemouth.

The delivery of the third Fast Crew Supplier (FCS) 2710 bought by Swansea, UK-based High Speed Transfers has taken place at Damen Shipyards Antalya. Named HST Harri, she joins the HST Hudson, delivered in May 2018, and the HST Sofia, which was handed over in March this year. A fourth FCS 2710 for High Speed Transfers, to be named HST Euan, is currently nearing completion for delivery in December.The HST Harri is booked to start immediately on a five-year contract in the North Sea with wind farm operator MHI Vestas…

The Port of Cardiff is expecting a busy cruise season which starts with the visit of the Cruise and Maritime Voyages-operated Marco Polo on Monday (22nd April), said Associated British Ports (ABP).Between May and June 2019, three cruise calls and over 2000 passengers will utilise port facilities and services provided by ABP South Wales at the Port of Cardiff.Richard Butler, Commercial Manager, ABP South Wales, said: “We are looking forward to once again welcoming thousands of passengers to the Port of Cardiff. The port provides a convenient and accessible gateway for passengers and boasts excellent road and rail links.”The Port of Cardiff already has several bookings for cruise calls during the 2020 season…

UK-based ship repairers and marine engineering services provider SMS Group has secured two very important contracts with Trinity House."The culmination of many months work has seen the SMS team in Lowestoft secure both the refit of the Trinity House Vessel (THV) Alert and three publicly tendered ‘Lots’ with regards to mechanical and electrical maintenance," said a press release from the firm.James Grala, the General Manager of SMS Lowestoft, said “We’ve won both the mechanical repair, maintenance and service contracts for vessels located on the East Coast and the West Coast.“We’ve also won the electrical repair, maintenance and service contract for vessels on the East Coast. The former contract covers Harwich and Swansea and the later just Harwich.

Damen and High Speed Transfers Ltd (HST) signed a contract for a third FCS 2710 fast crew supply vessel, for delivery in September this year. The FCS 2710 is the replacement for Damen’s FCS 2610 and was first shown to the world in July 2018 with HST as the lead customer. Effectively a complete redesign bringing with it a range of new capabilities and features, the FCS 2710 is capable of carrying twice as many passengers - 26 - as its predecessor and is also able to operate in wave heights of more than two meters due to an extra meter of freeboard.This latest addition to the HST fleet…

Blyth Catamarans has handed over its largest vessel to date, an 18m survey vessel for the UK’s Swansea University, a project that has been in the making for nearly 14 months.‘Mary Anning’ features a large A frame, dive lift and survey station for Swansea University. And it boasts hard-wearing DuroWipers pantographs, synonymous with the new Shannon class lifeboat builds.Among some of the other advanced specs onboard Mary Anning are two trawl winches, a moon pool with multi-beam deployment…

Damen showed two new Fast Crew Supply vessels to the world for the first time on the 3rd of July at the 2018 Seawork International Exhibition and Conference, currently underway in Southampton, UK. The FCS 2710 and FCS 1204 received their first public viewings and the naming ceremony for the FCS 2710 was also held on the opening day of the show. The FCS 2710 is the successor vessel to the highly popular FCS 2610, which has sold over 40 vessels worldwide over the past seven years. The FCS 2710 retains the successful twin hull, axe bow design but is one metre longer and higher than its predecessor. That, plus a complete redesign of the interior…

Damen Shipyards Group has introduced a new model to its Fast Crew Supplier range: the FCS 2710, which builds on the FCS 2610 first introduced in 2011.The first FCS 2710 vessel is already in build at Damen Shipyards Gorinchem for delivery in July 2018. The FCS 2710 retains the twin hull, axe bow design. However, as the offshore energy industry has evolved in recent years so has its requirements for crew transfer vessels and the regulations that govern them. Damen has listened to the feedback and designed a vessel that retains much of the fundamental design of the 2610, but delivers the additional capacity and performance sought by operators today.“The 2610 really was the first vessel of its kind.

One hundred years ago tomorrow (January 4) the sinking of a hospital ship by an infamous German U-boat commander caused outrage across Britain. Wilhelm Werner broke international law when he fired on HMHS Rewa, killing four seafarers and causing the vessel to sink into the Bristol Channel, 19 miles off Hartland Point. The Rewa - which had served in the Gallipoli campaign - was transporting walking wounded from Malta to Wales when it was torpedoed. The ship took two hours to sink, which gave those on board time to get into lifeboats. The survivors arrived in Swansea, where they received support from international maritime charity the British and Foreign Sailors’ Society. Reverend R.G.

Welsh workboat builders and servicing specialists Mainstay Marine Solutions said it has secured funding to support the purchase of a 150/200 ton boat lift. Mainstay Marine Solutions, marine engineers located in the deep-water port at Pembroke Dock on the Milford Haven Waterway, are set to purchase an amphibian boat hoist with the assistance of Coastal Communities Fund (CFF) funding. The 150/200 ton hoist will be capable of lifting vessels out of the water and moving around their 4.6 hectare site and into the company’s’ 4,000 m2 of covered workshop space.

One of the biggest icebergs on record has broken away from Antarctica, scientists said on Wednesday, creating an extra hazard for ships around the continent as it breaks up. The one trillion tonne iceberg, measuring 5,800 square km, calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica sometime between July 10 and 12, said scientists at the University of Swansea and the British Antarctic Survey. The iceberg, which is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware or the Indonesian island of Bali, has been close to breaking off for a few months. Throughout the Antarctic winter, scientists monitored the progress of the rift in the ice shelf using the European Space Agency satellites.

The first comprehensive study of the impact of global sea-level rise on tides has implications for future coastal flood risk, harbour management, and the long term planning of tidal energy sites. This research, published in Continental Shelf Research by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), University of Southampton and Deltares, shows that sea-level rise can significantly alter tides across the world in many different ways in both space and time. The change will be most pronounced in shelf seas on the east coast of the Americas, northwest Europe, north coast of Russia, across Asia and Australasia. This study was conducted by feeding a range of ‘plausible’ estimates of global sea level rise…

While the recent swoon in world oil and gas prices has predictably cooled a number of offshore renewable projects, there is a palpable change regarding the way in which the world views renewable energy. Renewable energy projects, at one time merely serving as window dressing, are slowly weaving their way into the mainstream energy mix, with European countries, namely the U.K., leading the way. In November world leaders will arrive in Paris to negotiate a new global agreement on climate change…

An OSV, a dredger and a landing craft have been recently added to the Dutch vessel delivery firm Redwise’s track record of completed ocean passages. The newly built landing craft  “ESNAAD 1010” of 1.334 gt and installed propulsion power of 1696 BHP was successfully delivered on her maiden passage during the monsoon season from the Sealink Yard at Miri (Malaysia) to Abu Dhabi (UAE). The newly built Offshore Support Vessel “OCEAN STAR”, departed from the yard at Guangzhou (China) on May 15th heading for her new homeport Dos Bocas (Mexico).

Redwise reported the successful repositioning of three ships globally, relocating an OSV, a dredger and a landing craft. The offshore support vessel Ocean Star, departed from the yard at Guangzhou, China on May 15 heading for her new homeport Dos Bocas, Mexico. The route took the vessel via great circle route across the Pacific Ocean to Panama Canal. Ocean Star safely arrived on the Caribbean side of Mexico on July 20 after a maiden voyage covering 10,676 nautical miles. The well-maintained and sturdy 1975 built dredger Sand Weaver  recently departed from the U.K. port of Swansea.

Hamburg - GL Garrad Hassan has appointed a new Business Development Manager in the UK, Ian Finch will be responsible for managing sales and business development activities for the GL Group with a special focus on offshore wind. He will work closely with Christoph Thiel, the newly appointed Head of Business Development and Sales for GL Garrad Hassan and Colin Morgan, who leads the Group's Offshore Wind Practice. Finch is an experienced sales and business development manager with over twenty years of working experience.

The news that the Harris Pye Group has failed in its attempt to renew the necessary license to develop and expand the Swansea Dry Docks for use for refurbishment and repair of a wide range of types and sizes of vessels has disappointed the Barry-based group, who had plans for the regeneration of the area and for an increase in employment opportunities. “We are naturally extremely disappointed not only for ourselves, but for a potential workforce of up to two hundred people and 50/60 trainees per year who would have graduated from our Training School. We also rue the missed opportunity for those who would have helped establish the thriving supply chain that would inevitably have sprung up in support of our actions,” said Mark Prendergast, Managing Director of the Harris Pye Group.

A new milestone has been achieved by the Harris Pye Group (HPG), vessels have been in both the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince of Wales dry docks in Swansea simultaneously – a first for the Group which signed a longer lease on the dry docks in April 2010 following the departure of Saga Pearl II which had been refurbished and refitted at the docks. The two vessels are Visten and Welsh Piper. The dredger, Welsh Piper, has now left having had her biannual special service, and undergone pipe replacement and steelwork (some 20 tonnes of steel were used in all). The Visten remains, she is owned by Canada’s CAI Logistics and is a tanker being converted into a bulk carrier. Work being undertaken includes the installation of two cargo cranes and the redesign of the hatch cover arrangement.

Marlink, provider of maritime satellite communications, has recently secured a new three-year contract with Irish Ferry Operator, Fastnet Line. As part of the new agreement, Marlink will deliver, install and operate its innovative Sealink VSAT solution onboard Fastnet Line's flagship vessel Julia, providing the ferry operator with high-quality, reliable bandwidth for vessel management, passenger and crew applications. "In addition, Sealink(TM) will improve operational efficiency…

Saga's newly acquired cruise ship, currently called the Astoria and to be transformed into Saga Pearl II, the latest addition to their fleet, is to undergo her refit and total refurbishment in Swansea Dry Docks, Wales. The Harris Pye Group, based in Barry in Wales, has won two major contracts connected to the work on the vessel being undertaken over the course of the next five months. The first contract won by Harris Pye Group for a cruise vessel in South Wales is for the provision of the dry dock, and dry dock services which include the complete overhaul of the main engines, auxiliary engines, boilers, HVAC systems, electrical and automation as well as a large quantity of steel and pipeworks…

Following the successful use of Swansea Dry Docks for the refit and refurbishment of Saga Pearl II, now successfully cruising; work on MV Julia, now plying the Fastnet Ferry Cork-Swansea overnight route; and emergency repair work on the 213.2 ft hopper dredger Heron, Harris Pye Group (HPG) has signed a longer lease on Swansea’s Duke of Edinburgh and Prince of Wales dry docks – a move that is attracting interest from a number of shipping lines. “We are very much ‘open for business’, indeed we dealt with the requirements of UKD Dredging’s Dolphin at the start of May” said the Group’s Managing Director, Mark Prendergast. “We invested heavily…