‘Porth Dafarch’ latest launch by South Boats

South Boats Special Projects Ltd. is pleased to announce the launch and commissioning of its 42nd offshore wind farm crew transfer vessel, ‘Porth Dafarch’. The vessel is a South Catamaran 16m and is the first of a three boat order from Turbine Transfers Ltd. to be delivered. This vessel complements the fifteen wind farm vessels already built for Turbine Transfers Ltd. by South Boats.

The South Catamaran 16m is a new model in the South Boats range, with the first having been delivered to E.ON Climate & Renewables UK Ltd. late last year.  The 16m takes over from the very successful 15m model that can be found on nearly all European wind farm projects.

The ‘Porth Dafarch’ has an LOA of 16.8m, Beam of 6.3m, Draught of 0.95m and a lightship displacement of 27 tonnes.  The vessel is configured with a central wheelhouse providing a forward deck capable of carrying up to 5 tonnes of construction and O&M equipment coupled to an aft deck capable of carrying a 2 tonne 690V 4 star delta generator set for supplying power to the wind turbine generators.

Powered by twin Scania DI16 43M 800mhp diesel engines and coupled to Ultra Dynamics UJ452 water jet units the vessel achieved a sprint speed of 26 knots and is capable of cruising at speeds in excess of 23 knots in departure condition.  A sophisticated hydraulics system driven by both Twin Disc gearboxes powers a Palfinger PK4501M fully folding knuckle boom crane forward, 5 bar 30,000 litre per hour fire pump, 1.5 tonne hydraulic capstan, 210 bar 30 litre per minute pressure washer system and 3.5tm³ 8 bar fuel transfer system.  The integrated system offers full redundancy from two supplies.  An ONAN 9kW 230V AC generator set supplies power to the vessels ring main and AC services.

This latest generation vessel has a totally reworked interior arrangement with the entrance door offset to stbd and a full width changing area, hanging area and turbine spares lockers aft.  Forward there are six crew seats to port arranged as three rows of two with the forward two rows facing each other with a table between and six crew seats arranged as two rows of three, all with tables forward facing to stbd.  A twin screen entertainment system is fitted with TV/DVD and forward looking cameras.

The bridge has a fully integrated Raymarine and Furuno electronic suite comprising twin radars, twin chart plotters, video sounder, fully recording CCTV, low light camera, thermal imaging camera, AIS, satellite compass, twin DSC radio’s, load hailer, GPS and auto pilot.  The bridge has heated forward screens to eliminate misting.

All windows in the vessel are fully double glazed to eliminate condensation and to provide the technicians with clear visibility out of the vessel. Free standing air intake and air extraction systems for the machinery spaces and high tech anti noise and vibration matting minimise noise and vibration to the passenger saloon areas.

‘Porth Dafarch’ has started her contract with Centrica on the Lincs Offshore Wind Farm, where she be joined by her sister ships over the coming months.  ‘Porth Dinllaen’ has recently been launched and ‘Porth Diana’ is scheduled for launch over the next 4 weeks.

South Boats continues to build 20 wind farm crew transfer vessels per annum and the new generation 16m, 17m, 19m, 24m and 30m designs are now populating the range and those not yet started will come on line over the next few months.  All of the new generation vessels feature modular superstructures, integrated systems, options for secondary access systems and new bow fender system.  With 5 years experience of building 42 wind farm vessels for 13 operators, and having worked on over 25 projects, there is no doubt that South Boats catamarans remain the vessel of industry choice.