DEME Group’s new cable laying, trenching and rock installation vessel, the 18,710gt/2018 built Living Stone, returned to her shipyard at Vlissingen at the end of June after sea trials. The ship has a considerable backlog ahead of her and, once delivered, the first project to be undertaken will see the ship install the inter-array cables on the Merkur offshore windfarm in the North Sea.

Seawork 2018 took place at Mayflower Park and waterfront, Southampton, 3rd-5th July and was opened by UK Maritime Minister, Nusrat Ghani. During the exhibition, SMS, a Southampton based ship repairer and marine engineering services provider, signed a partnership with WorkBoatSales.com to market its proven range of Bulldog workboats internationally. SMS has a hard earned reputation as specialists in ship repair, marine engineering and major fabrication projects in the commercial marine, defence and superyachts sectors. It aklso has a newbuild facility at Ocean Quays, Southampton where the Bulldog range of multi-functional workboats are built.

The company has been building such vessels for more than 10 years and its sister company is Wight Shipyard in East Cowes. Chartwell Marine also launched, in collaboration with Wight Shipyard, the new Chasewell hybrid propulsion patrol & pilot boat range that will significantly cut emissions in major international ports. Chartwell Marine has already seen significant global demand for its vessel design and consultancy services, with contracts secured throughout Europe, the USA and Asia.  Damen was also at Seawork of course and showed the new Fast Crew Suppliers 2710 and 1204 to the world for the first time on the opening day. The FCS 2710 is the successor to the highly popular FCS 2610, which has sold over 40 vessels worldwide over the past seven years. The FCS 2710 retains the successful twin hull, axe bow design but is one metre longer and higher than its predecessor. That, plus a complete redesign of the interior, allows it to carry twice the number of passengers as the FCS 2610 and enables it to deliver more flexibility, more tank capacity, greater deck space, increased comfort and more accommodation. The extra metre above the water also allows the vessel to operate in wave heights of above two metres. On the opening day of the show the first vessel of the new class, owned by High Speed Transfers Ltd., was officially named HST Hudson by managing director Tom Nevin’s young son of the same name.

A new entry into the offshore transfers sector based in Swansea, Wales, HST has been set up by three experienced operatives from the offshore industry. The new Fast Crew Supplier 1204 FRP is a 12m vessel and replaces the previous model of the same name. Capable of carrying up to 28 personnel at up to 30 knots, it has a range of 200nm at top speed.

Seacat Services of Cowes has secured a further charter agreement at the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm. This latest 2-year contract will see the Seacat Mischief and her sister vessel, Seacat Magic, provide logistical support to manufacturer and service provider Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy throughout the operations and maintenance phases. The pair of 23-metre jet propulsion catamarans will be based at Wick. The Seacat Mischief arrived on site in mid-August, and Seacat Magic in April 2019.