VOS Start, Vroon’s walk-to-work vessel, performed 200 transfers facilitating more than 850 persons to transition pieces during its first six weeks of operations on DONG Energy’s Walney Extension wind farm in the Irish Sea, Vroon reported.
The vessel is providing offshore logistics support, accommodation and walk-to-work services during the construction of Walney Extension.
It is able to accommodate 60 passengers, and is fitted with a Barge Master motion-compensated gangway. Its 50t active heave-compensated crane has to date completed more than 200 lifts from the vessel to transition-piece landing platforms located at 20m LAT.
VOS Start, Vroon’s first walk-to-work vessel purpose built to support offshore operations in the renewable energy industry, was delivered to its first charterer MHI Vestas on 1 August.
The Walney Extension, consisting of 87 turbines with a total capacity of 659MW, started generating first electricity earlier this month.
It is scheduled for completion in 2019 when it will become the world’s largest offshore wind farm.