UK: South Boats IOW, Seacat Services to Announce New Catamarans Order

South Boats IOW Ltd. and Seacat Services Ltd., both of the Isle of Wight, UK announced a two boat order for the construction of a further pair of South Catamaran 24m offshore wind farm crew transfer vessels.

These new vessels will be built by South Boats IOW at their Cowes facility and will be delivered in June 2013 and January 2014 respectively. Seacat Services Ltd. operate a number of South Catamaran 21m and South Catamaran 24m vessels and have forged strong relationships in the UK, Denmark and Germany on a number of offshore wind farms.

The high specification vessels will both be built to DNV 1A1 HSLC R2 Wind Farm Service 1 and MCA Workboat Code (Category 1) UK flag and will feature a resiliently mounted superstructure and modular internal arrangement so that the entire configuration of the saloon can be adapted between projects and between the requirements of construction and O&M. Both vessels are capable of carrying 3 x 10ft containers and large cargo payloads. Both are fitted with extensive specifications and are powered by twin MTU 12V2000M72 marine engines and Rolls Royce 56A3 water jets for speeds to 30 knots. South Boats IOW has set new standards of passenger comfort using extensive data collated from existing vessels and from research. Noise and vibration levels are very low at sub 63bBA in the passenger saloon due to specialist noise and vibration reducing paint coatings and lining materials.

 Steve Thacker of South Boats IOW is quoted as saying “South Boats IOW is proud to announce this contract award from Seacat Services and very much looks forward to delivering these vessels and continuing the strong relationship that exists between the two companies”.

 Ian Baylis of Seacat Services said: “Following on from the success of our current fleet of South Catamarans and in particular the outstanding capability of the 24m series we are delighted to be pushing forward with our expansion plans. These vessels are really setting the benchmark for safe and reliable transfer in challenging conditions. The sheer fact that a repeat customer has specifically requested 2 of our 24m vessels in order to guarantee a timely project delivery is testament to the seaworthiness, comfort, safety and reliability of these designs. We are looking forward to once again partnering with South Boats to launch more of these fantastic vessels”.

South Boats IOW Ltd. and Seacat Services Ltd. will be jointly exhibiting ‘Seacat Defender’, a South Catamaran 24m at the forthcoming Seawork Commercial Marine Exhibition in Southampton running June 25th-27th 2013.

[mappress]
South Boats, April 3, 2013