Baltic Workboats (BWB) and Damen Shipyards have signed a partnership agreement for a program to build "a significant number" of Damen’s Fast Crew Supplier (FCS) 2710 crew transfer vessels (CTV) at BWB’s facility on Saaremaa Island in Estonia.
The move aims to increase availability of CTVs for the Baltic region and other European markets as more offshore wind developments progress in established waters such as the North Sea as well as new areas including the Baltic Sea. CTVs are used for deploying and retrieving technicians and their equipment during the construction and commissioning phases of the wind turbine installations, and then transporting the maintenance crews that keep them operational throughout their lifetimes.
Baltic Workboats, which has long experience in building aluminum fast workboats for patrol and pilot duties as well as ferries and tugs, will construct the FCS 2710 CTVs using Damen-supplied components and materials. A range of propulsion configuration options and preparations for alternative fuels will be available.
The production of the first batch of vessels is already underway, with aluminum for the first hulls cut on May 9. The first vessel is expected to be ready for delivery in the summer of 2024. Over the next five years, more than ten FCS 2710s will be built using serial production techniques.
“Baltic Workboats is an ideal partner for us with their strategic location and proven track record of delivering high quality vessels,” said Jan-Wim Dekker, Chief Commercial Officer at Damen Shipyards. “Our partnership with them gives us extra construction capacity to meet the growing demand for proven crew transfer vessels in northern Europe. Working together will bring us closer to this fast-developing region as well as enabling us to meet the demand for high quality vessels that we are seeing from our customers.”
Margus Vanaselja, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Baltic Workboats, said, “We believe that combining Baltic Workboats’ extensive experience of building fast aluminum vessels with specific technical solutions, and Damen’s CTV market experience, will allow us to offer the best platform to service the windfarms in the Nordic areas. We also bring particular expertise in ice-strengthened hulls and propulsion systems, deck and rail heating systems and specific engine cooling solutions for Nordic conditions.”