Delta Marine Successfully Wraps Up OWF Job

Delta Marine’s vessel Whalsa Lass, anchor handling tug, has demonstrated its versatility during recently completed works on the wind farm project off the coast of Grimsby, UK.

Delta’s Damen-2611 Multicat was hired to serve as anchor handler for the cable laying vessel but ended up performing various jobs.

The 26-meter Whalsa Lass 100 tonne winch and twin Heila3 SL 230t/m knuckle boom cranes allowed the vessel to make a broader contribution to the project than was first envisioned.

Work started with Whalsa Lass handling a six by 7.5 tonne delta flipper anchor spread for the cable lay vessel, with the anchors pre-laid and the Multicat hooking up to cable lay vessel wires in up to 3 knots of tide. Furthermore, the vessel conducted cardinal buoy inspections, retrieving and returning them to shore for maintenance and subsequently re-deploying them.

Additionally it was called upon for the delivery of cable protection systems and the deployment of rock bags over cables in shallow water, deploying a 4 tonne bag every 14 minutes. The vessel could be equipped as a dive support platform, with a full dive spread encompassing decompression chamber, welfare, quads, a dive shack and three point mooring, all whilst still conducting anchor handling duties with the dive spread onboard. This allowed her to work with the divers moving boulders clear of the cable lay route.

A full ROV spread was also brought onboard, with a 20’ ROV container, control shack, provision of 120A power from ship’s generators and three point mooring, again whilst concurrently still anchor handling. Also performed were PLGR works, dragging a grapple train along the cable route checking for other obstructions which could affect the subsequent cable lay.

Whalsa Lass was even called upon to salvage containers lost overboard from a passing cargo vessel which were drifting and posed a collision risk to the windfarm, then transporting them ashore.