Wind Server gets its legs at Nordic Yards

MAY 20, 2014 — The fourth of four jack-up legs was today settled into its jacking position on an offshore wind turbine vessel under construction at the Wismar, Rostock-Warnemünde, shipyard of Germany’s Nordic Yards.

The vessel, the 82 m x 32 m Wind Server, was ordered by Denmark’s DBB Jack-Up Services in 2012 and the installation of its four giant jack-up legs marks a major milestone in the building of the specialized vessel.

The four 72 m long steel legs, each weighing 430 tons, have a diameter of 3.70 m. They were transported to the shipyard by sea from Cuxhaven.

Over the past eight days the legs have been vertically raised and installed one by one with the aid of a giant shoreside lattice boom crane while the floating crane Enak, on the opposite side of the ship, helped to guide them during the erection process.

The land-based crane then lowered and inserted the steel legs into the tube guides of the vessel. The raising and installation took two days per leg.

On arrival at the work location, the Wind Server jacks the legs down onto the seafloor and raises itself above the water. The system ensures that the vessel provides a safe working platform for the maintenance of offshore wind turbines in water depths of up to 45 meters. The Wind Server’s on-board crane has a lifting capacity enabling it to service even large 5 to 8 MW turbines.

The Wind Server will be delivered to DBB Jack-Up Services this summer.