BMT Nigel Gee Wind Farm Support Catamarans

BMT Nigel Gee Ltd, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, has signed a design and development contract for the construction of an initial batch of four Wind Farm Support Catamarans to be built by VeKa Shipbuilding BV at their yard in Jongert for operation by SeaZip Offshore Service BV.

SeaZip Offshore Service BV is a Dutch company founded in 2010 by the shipping entrepreneurs J.R. Arends and S. D. Schakelaar to focus on the development and operation of specialized vessels for the Offshore Renewable Industry in European waters. SeaZip has identified the need for a new design of Wind Farms Support vessel to service their target market and selected BMT as the world’s leading independent designer of catamarans to undertake the design in conjunction with VeKa.

Developed from BMT’s range of Turbine Support Vessels the SeaZip catamarans will be 64 ft in length with a beam of 7m powered by two 720kW MTU diesel engines via waterjets to achieve a service speed of 24 knots and a range of 300 nm. The design has been specifically configured to meet SeaZip’s requirement to carry 12 passengers and enable the vessels to carry a combination of up to three standard 10 ft ISO containers, one aft & two forward. The ISO containers will carry the necessary supplies and equipment for the offshore servicing tasks. In addition the foredeck layout has been expressly configured to incorporate the new Turbine Access System (TAS) being developed by BMT and Houlder to provide safer access to the turbine structures.

Construction of the four vessels has commenced at the Jongert shipyard in the Netherlands with BMT providing a full production design service including cut part information. The first vessel will be delivered to SeaZip by mid 2011.