Construction started

The construction of four wind farm support catamarans, designed and developed by BMT Nigel Gee Ltd, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, the Great Britain based maritime design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has started at the Jongert based yard of VEKA Shipbuilding BV. The vessels are to be operated by SeaZip Offshore Service BV.

Dutch company SeaZip Offshore Service BV was founded in 2010 by the shipping entrepreneurs J.R. Arends and S. D. Schakelaar to focus on the development and operation of specialised vessels for the Offshore Renewable Industry in European waters. SeaZip has identified the need for a new design of Wind Farms Support vessel to service their target market and selected BMT as the world's leading independent designer of catamarans to undertake the design in conjunction with VEKA.

Developed from BMT's range of Turbine Support Vessels the SeaZip catamarans will be 19.5m in length with a beam of 7m, powered by two 700kW diesel engines via waterjets to achieve a service speed of 24 knots and a range of 300 nm. The design has been specifically configured to meet SeaZip's requirement to carry 12 passengers and enable the vessels to carry a combination of up to three standard 10' ISO containers, one aft and two forward. The ISO containers will carry the necessary supplies and equipment for the offshore servicing tasks. In addition the foredeck layout has been expressly configured to incorporate the new Turbine Access System (TAS) being developed by BMT and Houlder to provide safer access to the turbine structures.

The first vessel is planned to be delivered to SeaZip by mid 2011.