Seismic survey vessel to become wind farm worker hotel
When completed, the rebuilt ship will be used to accommodate and transfer service personnel working on offshore wind farms. The rebuild project is being carried out at the Fayard AS shipyard in Denmark and is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2016. The contract with Wärtsilä was signed in September.
Wärtsilä provided the original designs for the Viking II, then Veritas Viking II, which was delivered in 1999 to the original owners, Eidesvik of Norway. After the current conversion, the vessel will be named Wind Innovation.
After the conversion, the vessel will have accommodations and hotel facilities for 125 people and will feature a heave compensated gangway. It will fullfil the requirements for Special Purpose Ships.
“This is a fast delivery project and it was essential that our naval architects could respond to the owner’s needs quickly. This we are able to achieve and our design will result in a vessel capable of operating efficiently in challenging sea and weather conditions with a high level of passenger comfort,” says Ove H. Wilhelmsen, Managing Director of Wärtsilä Ship Design Norway.
Wärtsilä has considerable experience in producing designs for the offshore wind turbine market, both for service vessels as well as for installation applications. Conversion projects are becoming of increasing interest for owners since there is a current over-supply of ships in many of the offshore application markets.
