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Feature

Autonomous Vessels delivered and the remaining six are due to arrive this year.

Following closely on their heels will be a ? eet of six 86-meter ships due to commence build in 2024, again at VARD, with delivery for the ? rst ships due early 2025. According to Ocean In? nity, all the vessels it is commissioning are future-proofed, not merely in terms of operational tweaks but also fuel type. Most will launch as diesel electric hybrids, but all will have large empty spaces aboard for future fuel provision, whether that future fuel be methanol, ammonia, straight hydrogen or a range of these.

In terms of the largest entirely un- crewed vessels on the ? eet, ? ve 36-me- ter boats (currently in build) will be as big as the company would like to talk about going at the moment.

Having seen the level at which

Ocean In? nity is working, it will take quite a competitor company to operate in this space, and those “who would like the security of waiting for a harmonized worldwide regulatory framework to exist will wait a decade or more before they can even get start- ed,” speculates Field.

Certain competitors are overlap- ping bits of Ocean In? nity’s areas of expertise by launching USVs from unmanned small craft or operating vessels such as ferries from remote control centers. However, in terms of the swathe of capabilities that Ocean

In? nity can offer; surface to subsea, 8- to 86-meter surface craft, subsea in- spection and intervention, uncrewed and lean crewed, the closest competi- tor according to Hook would be “the

U.S. Navy, but they’ve not got much interest in offshore renewables!” www.marinelink.com MN 25|

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