North Wales News

UK-based workboat constructor Diverse Marine has delivered the offshore wind crew transfer vessel ‘Iceni Valour’ to Turner Iceni."The vessel arrived successfully ahead of schedule in North Wales, to commence her 10-year charter in the Liverpool Bay area," Diverse Marine said Thursday.The Iceni Valour is a 24-meter aluminium crew transfer vessel designed by Walker Marine Design, and powered by twin MAN D2862 LE263 1400hp main engines with ZF3050 gearboxes and Hamilton Jet HM651 water jet units.According to Diverse Marine…

Britain’s new polar ship, the Sir David Attenborough, headed for the open seas on Tuesday to start trials after a storm delay, before making its maiden voyage to Antarctica next year for climate change research.The 200 million pound ($260 million), state-of-the-art, polar research vessel, with its red hull and a bright yellow crane on its stern, sailed past Liverpool’s historic docks and out into the sea, headed for north Wales.Officially the ship is named after the veteran BBC naturalist David Attenborough…

The U.K.’s most advanced polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough left Cammell Laird shipyard Wednesday to commence two weeks of technical sea trials ahead of scheduled delivery to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) in November.“Although the vessel’s construction is now complete, trials are a critical and final part of the program as they allow our engineers and the ship’s crew to put the vessel through its paces at sea,” said Linton Roberts, Director of Operations at Cammell Laird.

Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) has agreed to lift its shareholding in the 576-MW Gwynt y Mor offshore wind farm in the UK by purchasing an additional 10% stake for an undisclosed sum.MIRA has managed a 10 per cent stake in Gwynt y Môr since 2017 following Macquarie Group’s acquisition of the Green Investment Bank.Gwynt y Môr is a 576 MW offshore wind farm positioned 13 kilometers off the coast of North Wales. Operational since 2015, Gwynt y Môr is comprised of 160 3.6 MW wind turbines spread across 80 square kilometers. Each year, the wind farm provides enough clean electricity to power approximately 430,000 UK homes.Leigh Harrison, Head of MIRA EMEA, said: “We are delighted to announce an additional investment in Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm.

UK-based survey specialist Bibby HydroMap have announced the successful completion of testing of ‘DriX’, the 8-metre Autonomous Unmanned Survey Vessel (AUSV) developed by iXblue.Designed to provide a true extension of survey capability from shallow and inshore waters to a full offshore environment, DriX is a new breed of AUSV that is the first autonomous survey platform to truly rival the performance of a traditional survey vessel.The versatile system has the ability to accommodate a hydrographic and geophysical survey payload and to aid positioning of underwater vehicles, facilitating data collection on a variety of marine projects.Guillaume Edeline…

A giant vessel bearing five ‘megamax’ quayside cranes sailed up the River Mersey yesterday destined for the new Liverpool2 container terminal, completing the final stage of its voyage from China. The cranes originally set off from Shanghai in August passing south-east Asia, India, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa via the Cape of Good Hope en route to Liverpool in a journey of over 30,000km (18,000m, 16,400nm). The super-structures were produced by Chinese company, Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co (ZPMC), the largest heavy duty equipment manufacturer in the world, as part of a contract with Peel Ports worth over £100m. A total of eight ship…

Merseyside-based engine specialist James Troop & Co has secured a deal to supply and install two Volvo Penta D9 engines to extend the service life of one of Liverpool’s River Mersey pilot boats. The firm said it was approached by Peel Ports to replace the engines onboard the Fulmar – one of eight Mersey pilot boats. James Troop immediately sent technical manager Alan Railton and engine sales executive Anthony Ward to work with the customer to perform all the necessary onboard checks, measure up and prepare a recommendation.

The last operational British-built wooden hull three-mast top sail schooner, Kathleen & May, as supplied with a new Volvo Penta engine from Liverpool, U.K.-based engine specialist James Troop & Co. James Troop was tasked with supplying a Volvo Penta engine for the historic Kathleen & May, working in collaboration with fellow maritime firm Cammell Laird to fit the D13 450 brake horsepower engine, along with a new generator, on the vessel at its mooring at Liverpool’s Albert Dock.

New capacity edges down 5 pct from record 2013; industry body forecasts stable growth over 2015/6. Europe's offshore wind capacity kept up a steady rate of growth in 2014 and should expand at a similar pace on average over the coming two years, an industry report said on Friday. New capacity connected to the grid totalled 1,483 megawatts (MW), edging down from 1,567 MW in 2013 when a record number of turbines and wind farms were installed, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) said. Total installed wind capacity now stands at around 8,045 MW, enough to cover 1 percent of Europe's electricity needs, it said. "It is not surprising that we see a levelling off of installations in 2014 following a record year in 2013," EWEA Deputy Chief Executive Justin Wilkes said in a statement.

An £8 million investment in the Port of Liverpool’ animal feed warehouse facility makes it the largest of its type in the U.K., increasing capacity by 60% to 400,000sq.ft, allowing Peel Ports Group to add value to its customer supply chains and create effective logistics solutions, the company said. The Port of Liverpool is the U.K.’s most centrally positioned port and can uniquely connect by water to the major conurbations of Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast and Manchester, via the Manchester Ship Canal.

Fugro say they have been awarded two contracts to perform cable burial and survey operations at two wind farm sites in the UK. The first contract is for CT Offshore A/S at RWE Innogy's Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm located in Liverpool Bay off the North Wales coast. The work involves the burial and post-burial survey of 63 inter-array cables. The second contract is a similar work-scope at a wind-farm located off the UK East coast. The projects will run consecutively with work commencing in January and completing in the 3rd quarter of 2014.

CWind, a provider of services to the offshore wind industry, has announced a second of its vessels, the CWind Resolution due to be named later today in Brightlingsea, has gained the new class notation ‘Wind Farm Service Ships’ introduced by Bureau Veritas earlier this year. The CWind Resolution is only the second ever vessel to be classed under this notation to date, joining its sister vessel the CWind Challenger on the register. The vessel, a CTruk 20T MPC, is joining CWind’s fleet of now 15 vessels, as part of the company’s ‘Boat-share scheme’ under which experienced skippers are being given the opportunity to co-invest in the vessels.

The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMA) 2013 Humanitarian Award has been presented to Dr. Gary Parker of Mercy Ships in recognition of his lifelong efforts. Gary R. Parker, DDS, received the AAOMS Humanitarian Award for Fellows and Members recently during the opening ceremony of the 95th Annual Meeting, Scientific Sessions and Exhibition of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) in Orlando, Florida. “As I watched the flow of people boarding the Africa Mercy in search of a miracle…

ABB commissions world's highest capacity HVDC Light underwater power link, a 500 MW HVDC inter-connection between Ireland and the UK enables leveraging of wind energy and facilitates power flows between the two countries. ABB has delivered the East West Interconnector to EirGrid, the Irish transmission system operator. The 500-megawatt (MW) transmission connection is the highest capacity link of its kind, based on voltage source converter (VSC) technology, to go into commercial operation. The interconnector establishes an important link between the Irish and U.K.

'Ciudad de Cadiz' blown off the berth to ground near Mostyn Harbour on the Salisbury Bank, River Dee in North Wales. The vessel had been berthed alongside in Mostyn Harbour when the mooring lines parted in 60 knot winds. She then drifted onto a sandbank. Another attempt to free the ship will be made at the next high tide. "We are closely monitoring the situation, but as there is no evidence of damage to the hull, the risk of pollution is very low," added Mr. Shaw.

Six offshore wind energy trainees from North Wales have successfully completed a year-long training program with the UK’s only dedicated academy for the offshore wind industry and are ready to take up positions in this rapidly expanding industry. The trainees were fortunate enough to be selected for Offshore Marine Academy structured traineeship, which selects candidates with an affinity for the marine and coastal environment and aim to prepare them for a new career in offshore wind.

There was a wide variety of accidents to merchant vessels investigated during 2011. For the second year in succession there were no UK registered ship losses and the number of accidents, as a ratio of the size of the fleet, was the lowest recorded by MAIB. The number of fatalities on UK registered vessels >100gt (5) has risen slightly compared with 2010, but is still low, and the number of injuries to crew is at its lowest ever level. A further 8 seafarers lost their lives on foreign registered vessels while operating in UK waters, including 6 from the Cook Islands registered bulk carrier Swanland, which sank in heavy weather off the north Wales coast in November. The number of fishing vessels lost, 24, is the highest number recorded by the MAIB since 2005.

At 576MW The Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm will be one of the largest in Europe. The contract requires Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical assist with engineering, project management, ROV and survey operations linked to the subsea installation and burial of all infield array cables for Gwynt y Môr, located 13 kilometres off the North Wales coast in Liverpool Bay. The wind farm will have an installed capacity of 576MW, and is designed to be ultimately integrated into the UK National Grid in 2014. Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical (RSPU) has been tasked with installing and burying the 161 infield inter array cables. Workscope also covers connection to the two offshore sub-stations.

The operation to remove the remaining 24,000 litres of fuel oil, along with oily water and other hazardous materials from the grounded vessel ‘Carrier’ has been completed. The vessel, which ran aground on 4 April near Llanddulas in North Wales, remains aground and is resting against concrete dolosse blocks on the beach close to the North Wales Expressway (A55). The owners of the vessel have declared it a Constructive Total Loss. PGC Demolition, the same company who were awarded the contract to remove the fuel oil from the vessel, were also awarded the contract to remove the wreck of the vessel. Their proposals to cut the vessel up on site and remove it for recycling have been approved by the Deputy to the Secretary of State’s Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention…

The MV Carrier will be cut into manageable sections on the shore at Llanddulas, near Colwyn Bay, and sent to a scrap yard by road, according to a BBC news report. The owners confirmed contractors will start the demolition once they remove the ship's 24,000 litres of fuel. The work is expected to take six weeks. Seven Polish crew had to rescued when the vessel ran aground last Tuesday. Two lifeboats and Royal Navy and RAF helicopters were involved in the rescue during the night-time rescue in heavy seas.

Liverpool Coastguard  had received a distress call from the cargo ship ‘Carrier’ telling them they had run aground at Raynes Jetty, Llanddulas (on the coast of Wales). A strong gale was blowing and a five metre swell was reported. Because of the location of the grounding Holyhead Coastguard coordinated the rescue. All seven of the Polish crew were taken uninjured from the ship by two rescue helicopters (the first from RNAS Prestwick, the second from RAF Leconfield). The A55 (road) was closed to allow the rescue services safe access to the vessel. Coastguard Rescue teams from Rhyl and Llandudno offered assistance to the rescued crew whilst the RNLI lifeboats from Llandudno and Rhyl launched.

A cargo ship, 82 m in length, registered in Antigua, is pinned against the sea defence wall at Llanddulas, North Wales The ship, carrying a cargo of bulk limestone, with a crew of seven Polish seamen on board was thought to have struck a rock near Raynes Jetty at Llanddulas, near Colwyn Bay during a Force 9 storm, according to the Mail news report. Two lifeboats have been launched and shore-based rescuers attemp to rescue the crew as heavy waves break over the stranded vessel. It was not clear what the reason for the accident was.

Aberdeen-based Veripos, suppliers of GNSS positioning services to the world offshore industry, has appointed Richard Turner as Global Business Development Manager responsible for continuing development of its worldwide operations, including acquisition of new business as well as commercial and contractual negotiations. Reporting to Managing Director Walter Steedman, his brief also includes sales strategy formulation, market research and analysis, brand management and promotional activities.