West England News

The Crown Estate, which manages the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has set out further details of a new leasing round for three commercial-scale floating wind projects in the Celtic Sea off the coast of South Wales and South West England. The projects have the potential to deliver enough clean, renewable energy for more than four million homes.In one of the largest initiatives of its kind in the world, sites totalling 4.5GW of floating wind off the coast of South Wales and South West England will be leased across three agreed areas of the Celtic Sea.

A new smartphone app created in the U.K. enables the fishing industry to report accidental wildlife catch (bycatch) alongside standard catch reporting and will help to record bycatch of important marine species such as dolphins and porpoises, seals, seabirds, sharks, skates and rays.The app's developer, AST Marine Sciences Limited, part of Applied Satellite Technology Ltd, says it hopes the technology will be used by scientists and the fishing industry to help understand which…

Cincinnati schoolteacher Bryce Carlson set a record for the fastest solo unsupported west-east row across the North Atlantic ocean on Saturday and also became the first U.S. citizen to complete the feat.The 37-year-old landed at the port of St Mary's in the Scilly Isles, off the coast of south-west England, some 38 days six hours and 49 minutes after he set off from St John's in Newfoundland.The previous record for the solo west-east crossing was 53 days eight hours and 26 minutes set by Canadian Laval St.

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has signed a contract with The Bristol Port Company to undertake a comprehensive upgrade of one of the terminal's ship-to-shore (STS) cranes.The order was booked in Cargotec's 2018 second quarter order intake and the upgrade project is scheduled to be completed during Q1 2019.The Port of Bristol is located at the mouth of the River Avon in south-west England and can handle vessels of up to 130,000 dwt.James Overthrow, Director of Engineering at The Bristol Port Company said: "We chose to partner with Kalmar because of their proven track record in crane construction and retrofit projects. It is critical to ensure that our STS cranes remain safe and reliable…

DNV GL has secured a role as technical advisor to a group of institutional lenders with their investment of the 659MW Walney Extension. Located off the coast of North West England at Barrow-in-Furness, the Walney Extension offshore wind farm will bring a mix of wind turbine types, featuring 40 MHI Vestas V164 and 47 Siemens SWT-7.0-154 turbines. DNV GL conducted a detailed technical due diligence study and full independent energy production assessment, allowing the group of lenders to develop an understanding of the technical characteristics and risk profile. The group of lenders includes Aviva Investors, BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets and Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solution.

Thales is announcing a major commitment to develop future autonomous and unmanned technology across air and sea by investing in two new UK-based trials and training centers. Following Thales’s successful trials during the Royal Navy’s Unmanned Warrior exercise in 2016, Thales is now investing in two trials and training centres based in West Wales and in South-West England to test and develop autonomous systems for both military and civil activities. "Investing in these facilities enables the safe test…

Maritime security technology company, Sonardyne International Ltd, has demonstrated the capabilities of its Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance Sonar, NOAS, during three days of water borne demonstrations in Plymouth, south-west England. More than 25 equipment specifiers, owners’ representatives and vessel operators from the European superyacht industry, commercial shipping and naval community attended the event in late November to witness first-hand the capabilities of NOAS as an important new aid to vessel navigation and underwater obstacle avoidance.

The world’s oldest enclosed commercial wet dock in Liverpool, North-west England is celebrating its 300th anniversary. Known locally as the ‘old dock’, it opened for business on 31 August 1715, providing a blueprint for the development of other trading ports. For the first time in history, the design of the dock allowed ships to load and unload whatever the state of the tide. It helped Liverpool to become one of the globe’s most important ports, with ships being able to turn around in under two days, rather than the two weeks needed previously. Thanks to the ‘old dock’, by the end of the 19th century 9% of the world’s trade went through Liverpool.

NorseMerchant Ferries has responded to market demand for increased trailer capacity between North-West England and the Republic of Ireland by adding a third vessel to its Birkenhead - Dublin service. With a capacity of approximately 70 trailers, the newly-chartered Leili will provide over 400 additional spaces per week in each direction on this route when she enters service in October. A sister vessel to NorseMerchant's Varbola, currently operating on the Heysham - Belfast route, Leili can also carry 12 driver accompanied units. Sailing from Birkenhead at 03.00hrs, Leili will arrive in Dublin at 11.00hrs, enabling same day delivery. The return sailing from Dublin at 15.00hrs will arrive in Birkenhead at 23.00hrs, allowing next day deliveries throughout the UK.

Ship repair outfit A&P Group Holdings said on Friday it bought the dockyards of insolvent shipbuilder Cammell Laird, but there was no reprieve for the 204 workers of the northern English firm. A spokeswoman for Cammell Laird's receivers PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said the remaining staff at the shipyards would be wound down but no deadline had been set. Cammell Laird collapsed in April after a series of cancelled orders hit its finances. Earlier this month the firm, a symbol of the decline in British shipbuilding, announced it was to axe 330 U.K. jobs on top of more than 600 job cuts made earlier this year. Among the famous boats put to sea from Cammell Laird's Mersey docks were the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the Alabama, a raider designed to fight in the U.S. civil war.