Page 35: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2023)

SHIP REPAIR

Illustration courtesy Ulstein

Ulstein designed GLDD subsea rock installation vessel for US offshore wind.

lstein group is a front runner. The Norwegian-

Head start based company has already provided the design

It is no secret that Ulstein is in discussion with various off- for a rock installation vessel now under con- shore wind companies in the US but company executives can- struction for a joint venture between Houston-

Ubased Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD) not reveal more details. Wessels says that the selection of an

Ulstein design by GLDD provides a head start. The US com- and Netherlands based Van Oord. Now being built at Philly pany required a Jones Act compliant, dynamically positioned

Shipyard and due for delivery in ? rst half of 2024, the ship vessel that could be constructed in a US shipyard to undertake will be the ? rst Jones Act-compliant offshore wind support scour protection on offshore wind foundations.

vessel to be built in the US. It will be deployed on the Empire

There are speci? c requirements for vessels to be deployed in

I and II wind farms off the coast of New York. the US. Apart from the Jones Act itself, ships designed for US

Lars Ståle Skoge is Commercial Director at Ulstein De- deployments must also meet US Coast Guard requirements. sign & Solutions AS. “There is a great potential for European

And, depending on customer and shipyard, designing in im- companies like Ulstein to contribute to develop the offshore perial units may be a signi? cant plus point, Wessels reveals. wind market in the US, and get a quick start based on the “Typically, we see that build time in the US is longer than learnings from the European offshore wind industry,” he tells in Europe, for example, and we constantly evaluate the pos-

Maritime Reporter & Engineering News.

sibilities and the best project approach,” he explains. “Our

His Rotterdam-based colleague, Nick Wessels, outlines the company’s strategy of diversi? cation. Ulstein is offering a Dutch design of? ce typically works on one-off designs that are fully tailored to client speci? c requirements. We prefer wide range of offshore wind designs for different tasks, he re- to work with the shipowner for the concept and basic design veals, but it is also offering scope to upgrade existing vessels. as they know what they want to do with the vessel in terms “We have several designs available that are suitable for US of operation. operations,” he explains. “These include feeder jack-up instal- “It allows the shipowner to tender with several shipyards,” lation vessels, feeder transport units to ship foundations and he continues. “After that, we are happy to support either the se- turbine components to jack-up vessels, and heavy-lift founda- lected shipyard in the actual building of the vessel if so desired tion installation ships.” The designs can all be customized to or to keep supporting the shipowner’s newbuilding team.” meet speci? c clients’ requirements.

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