Seacat's Catamaran to Serve Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm
Seacat Services, an offshore support vessel firm, has signed a long-term charter for the catamaran Seacat Magic with Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm Ltd.
Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm Ltd. is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (50%) and RWE Renewables (50%) running the namesake wind farm. SSE Renewables operates the offshore wind farm.
The 504MW offshore wind farm has been in operation since 2012, generating enough low-carbon renewable energy each year to power the equivalent of over 400,000 UK homes.
Seacat Magic will assist the Greater Gabbard service team with operations and maintenance (O&M) at the 140-turbine wind farm. She joins sister ship Seacat Freedom, which was first deployed at the offshore wind farm site back in 2017.
From 2017 to March 2020 while in operation at Greater Gabbard, Seacat Freedom performed over 9,200 crew transfers to the wind farm.
Ian Baylis, Managing Director at Seacat said: “We are driven to provide the highest quality of service to all of our clients, and Greater Gabbard is no exception. The wind farm is a unique and technically challenging project to operate on, and the addition of a capable vessel like Seacat Magic will ensure that O&M activity will continue to meet deadlines safely and efficiently as the project scales up, irrespective of weather conditions."