Eden Rose, one of Tidal Transit’s growing fleet of purpose designed vessels for use by companies involved in the planning, development, construction and operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms in the Greater Wash and the southern North Sea, made its maiden visit to the Outer Harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea in North Norfolk on Sunday 6 January 2013.
To the many people walking past the Outer Harbour on what was a beautiful winter’s morning, this would have been no big deal, but it was in fact a very important step forward in the development of North Norfolk’s renewable energy economy.
The tidal restrictions associated with Wells Harbour are well known, and the investment in the new Outer Harbour was made when Scira Offshore Energy chose Wells-next-the-Sea as its operations and maintenance base for the 88 turbine Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, which was recently fully commissioned.
Eden Rose is currently on contract charter to Scira, a contract which was awarded because the vessel is able to remain at sea for up to four days, and can comfortably accommodate offshore technicians who need to be on site on a daily basis to undertake routine maintenance.
Tidal Transit Commercial Director Leo Hambro was delighted with Eden Rose’s smooth passage up the channel to the Outer Harbour saying:
“Our new generation vessels provide offshore wind farm developers and operators with greatly enhanced operational flexibility in comparison with the more traditional vessels. Being able to berth in Wells rather than Great Yarmouth is obviously far more convenient for Scira’s maintenance schedules.
“However, the Outer Harbour’s ability to receive vessels of this size should now encourage other Round 2 offshore wind farm developers to seriously consider North Norfolk as their on-shore base of operations, using Wells-next-the-Sea as the point of sea-going access.”
[mappress]
Press release, January 08, 2013; Image: tidal transit