Page 31: of Marine News Magazine (October 2020)

30 32

Tremblay explained further, “At the end of 2019 ABS granted VARD the ? rst Approval in Principle (AIP) for a

Jones Act service operations vessel (SOV), with primary functions including accommodation, transferring techni- cians to installations as well as storing spare parts and tools for operations in U.S. offshore wind farms. That milestone has been followed by further AIPs both to VARD for a large SOV and to BAR and Chartwell Marine for an in- novative Jones Act crew transfer vessel.”

Tremblay pointed to the class society’s prominent role in wind energy’s buildout, evolving analogously to offshore oil drilling towards ? oating units. “ABS provides leading classi? cation services for wind support vessels, including self-elevating units, wind turbine installations vessels and offshore support vessels. ABS classed the largest wind farm installation jack-up Seajacks Scylla in 2015 and earlier this year, to the ? rst ? oating heavy lift installation vessel to be built in Taiwan, Green Jade. ABS is also a world leader in classing ? oating offshore wind, in process of classing nearly 80 megawatts of ? oating wind.”

Capt. Jim Demske

ATB built for Vane Brothers at Conrad Shipyard

Hank Carter / Vane Brothers Vane Brothers www.marinelink.com