The Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) has developed a new design of recommended boat landing geometry for vessels working in the offshore wind sector.
The design , developed with support from Atkins, offers a consistent fender geometry for use on crew transfer vessels (CTVs) across different wind farms, reducing the time and cost of changing fenders, The Carbon Trust said.
It follows the analysis of the interaction and impact of CTVs on boat landings during push-on transfers to offshore structures and other vessels, and incorporates better-defined CTV loads, as well as industry feedback and recommendations.
“While we think the recommended design will provide benefit to the industry-at-large, we expect this will have the greatest impact in emerging offshore wind markets, where new projects can implement the design from the outset, without need for retrofit,” said Sam Strivens , Manager of the OWA vessel and access systems workstream.
According to the Carbon Trust, currently, there is wide inconsistency in boat landing geometry between wind farms, even those located in close proximity to each other, which results in CTVs not having the correct fender configuration to safely undertake operations or having to switch configurations when operating between projects, which increases health and safety risk.
This OWA project aimed to build on both pieces of research and recommend a standardized boat landing design that would address the health and safety implications of differing designs and incorporate a more detailed analysis of impact forces.