Is three hours in a small boat too much?

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gjgm

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A small digression first...
I read that the UK is about to become one of the worlds leading countries in offshore wind farms. Wonderful timing, given the financial state of wind turbine companies. You might think there was a hint in there somewhere, but..
Anyway, we are about to commit £100 bio to developing one of the most expensive ways known to produce electricity- bcz its good for the carbon footprint.
But,one of the major problems apparently, is that after three hours in a small boat, the engineers are so ill they cant actually do any work.
 
gjgm said:
But,one of the major problems apparently, is that after three hours in a small boat, the engineers are so ill they cant actually do any work.
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Depends where the wind farms are. Here in the N West they are just a few minutes off the coast at Liverpool and Rhyl.

Companies like this, http://www.offshorewindpower.co.uk/ have fast boats which I reckon could be out in the 'farm' in twenty minutes, or so.

Nice to see someone is making money from global warming.
 
The boats I have seen used are not that small.... well compared to mine anyway!! ;)

....also interesting that it only takes 8 hours from start to finish to erect a turbine. I guess if the engineers are feeling too ill after 3 hours it will take far longer!
 
The preference for these work boats is cats with a minimum speed of 20 knots, so not too long on passage out there. The Gabbard field to be worked from Lowestoft might be longer though. For boarding , some companies work with maximum swell of 2m for cats & 11/2 for monohulls. Size of these "small" work boats is up to 25m or more with horrendous fuel consumptions ( but all ok as it is for a green project). In fact several cannot work from the smaller ports as they are too large.
 
South Boats have built quite a few support boats for the wind farms - more about them here :
http://www.southboatssp.co.uk/

Alnmaritec have built a few as well - have a look at http://www.alnmaritec.co.uk/all_boats90.html and scroll down to ALN 091.
And here is a press release on the Alnmaritec site about the wind farm boats :
http://www.alnmaritec.co.uk/news_Nov09b.html

They all have special fendering on the bows for when in contact with the windmill support pillar - apparently they hold the boat in place by putting lots of ahead revs on the engines, and this effectively 'locks' the bows on, such that the back end then pivots up and down in the swell.
 
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Bajansailor said:
South Boats have built quite a few support boats for the wind farms - more about them here :
http://www.southboatssp.co.uk/

Alnmaritec have built a few as well - have a look at http://www.alnmaritec.co.uk/all_boats90.html and scroll down to ALN 091.
And here is a press release on the Alnmaritec site about the wind farm boats :
http://www.alnmaritec.co.uk/news_Nov09b.html

They all have special fendering on the bows for when in contact with the windmill support pillar - apparently they hold the boat in place by putting lots of ahead revs on the engines, and this effectively 'locks' the bows on, such that the back end then pivots up and down in the swell.
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Thought you would comment on the cat workboat concept Martin....with your current project etc..

Fisherman (forumite) sent a couple of links on another thread regarding the commercial cats being used in his area. Interesting to see how they will be received, compared to traditional craft.
 
Hi Callum, yes I am a keen supporter of ally commercial power cats! :)
I designed the one in my avatar, and she was built here 9 years ago - I posted a few photos of her on a thread about sexy power cats (never mind that mine is anything but sexy!) a few years ago here - http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117555

Re current project, I visited Alnmaritec just before Christmas to have a look at a 40' x 20' ally cat Oil Spill Response Vessel they are building for the Oil Terminal here - hulls and bridgedeck were complete, and most of the deck had been tacked on, and we did a trial fit of one of the Cummins 150 hp engines. Completion date is early March. She will have some very neat pollution control gear fitted including a pair of outriggers for spraying dispersant, and a huge hydraulic reel on the aft end with 1,400' of floating boom spooled on it for helping to contain oil spills.
I shall download some photos of her to my photobucket and post them in a new thread if anybody is keen on seeing them.

Could you please post the links by Fisherman re the commercial cats in his area? I know that many commercial fishermen down under embrace cats big time, and they are starting to go that way in Britain as well. Not here (yet!) though - everybody here is staunchly traditional, with fibreglass semi-displacement monohulls being as radical as they get.
 
Major Catastrophe said:
Depends where the wind farms are. Here in the N West they are just a few minutes off the coast at Liverpool and Rhyl.

Companies like this, http://www.offshorewindpower.co.uk/ have fast boats which I reckon could be out in the 'farm' in twenty minutes, or so.

Nice to see someone is making money from global warming.
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Or should that read Taking money from global warming.


As I understand it these things have huge carbon foot print to manufacture and a life expectancy of 15 years, hardly seems worth it given what must an enormous maintenance bill as compared to land based units that must be marginal to say the least.

Avagoodweekend......

.
 
Bajansailor said:
Hi Callum, yes I am a keen supporter of ally commercial power cats! :)
I designed the one in my avatar, and she was built here 9 years ago - I posted a few photos of her on a thread about sexy power cats (never mind that mine is anything but sexy!) a few years ago here - http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117555

Re current project, I visited Alnmaritec just before Christmas to have a look at a 40' x 20' ally cat Oil Spill Response Vessel they are building for the Oil Terminal here - hulls and bridgedeck were complete, and most of the deck had been tacked on, and we did a trial fit of one of the Cummins 150 hp engines. Completion date is early March. She will have some very neat pollution control gear fitted including a pair of outriggers for spraying dispersant, and a huge hydraulic reel on the aft end with 1,400' of floating boom spooled on it for helping to contain oil spills.
I shall download some photos of her to my photobucket and post them in a new thread if anybody is keen on seeing them.

Could you please post the links by Fisherman re the commercial cats in his area? I know that many commercial fishermen down under embrace cats big time, and they are starting to go that way in Britain as well. Not here (yet!) though - everybody here is staunchly traditional, with fibreglass semi-displacement monohulls being as radical as they get.
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I will have to get my son to do the link thing when I get home :o not too sharp in that department...

Essentially there was a fast 40' narrow beam cat with twin 100 h.p. O/B's hondas, for a single operator, and a very large volume 50' with 500 h.p. diesels.

All the best with the project


Callum
 
coastwise said:
Quite right "Frontier" - ... minimum top speed of 20 knots.....
Mind you, have seen some of them trying to park at not far off that!
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:D

Tiss some truth in that!

Having helmed an offshore supply cat a bit.
Noticed how 'brutal' some of the Skippers are.

However, it it sort of goes with the Job.
Lots of revs and stuff.

Holding one against another ships ladder or windmill gadgett does require a bit of throttle and aggression.

Plus there is a job to done, as it were.
Tiss a different mind set to just bobbin about on the Oggin for pleasure somehow.

Metal ones now, mostly.
I was watching a fibreglass Man 'patching' a glass one in Deganwy (just up the coast from My place) last year.
All bashed a bit at the forward blunt end!
Spoke to the Owner a bit later.

'Blimey that's had a hard time' says I
'Taint theirs, so they don't care' the Man said.

Not typical I may add.
But thats how some are !

Jet drives as opposed to shafts are the now preffered drive.
Not driven one yet but those that have reckon they are much better in a lumpy sea.
As far as sticken em on a ladder.

Ones I have helmed, well only two actually, had no probs maintaining 20 kts through 2 metre seas plus.
Only funny motion was when the sea was on the forward quarter.
Bit squiggly but soon got used to
Just a bit different kinda motion to a monohull.

Anyway
Delivered the bashed glass one after it was mended to a place called Mostyn up the river Dee, a few miles away.
Bounced more than the Heavy Metal ones!
But still very stable.
3 hours is ok
But as yer say Coastwise
Not many passages of that length of time
 
gjgm said:
But,one of the major problems apparently, is that after three hours in a small boat, the engineers are so ill they cant actually do any work.
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Sounds a bit of media guff!

Longest passage I've had on a small boat was 14 hours, single handed on a mobo trip.
 
Kawasaki said:
Jet drives as opposed to shafts are the now preffered drive.
Not driven one yet but those that have reckon they are much better in a lumpy sea.
As far as sticken em on a ladder.
Click to expand...

That depends on who you talk to :) There have been a couple incidents where the swell has left a 'hole' under the jet drive intake and thrust is lost causing the craft to come away from the tower/ladder.

One of the East Coast companies was (not sure if they ever completed the order) going for shafts on their new boats.

W.
 
The 'line boat' that works in the local coastal harbour, taking ships lines ashore, is a 35' strongly built, plate alloy mono, with a single jet drive. The operator does some commercial tow jobs up river to our marina, and watching him manoeuvre this vessel in super tight situations, is a sight to behold.
 
Aye you could br right there.
Just the last 3 new ones built for this Coast have been ordered as jets.
See what you mean though
Although, as said aint got any personal experience of jet drives.

Plus, whilst speaking to an Owner/Skipper a couple of months ago.
I offered to help out if He was stuck.
'Have yer driven Jets'? He asked.

When I replied I had not.
That was that, I reckon!
Spose jets might be handy 'holding' when there is lots of beam on against a ladder?
Dunno.
What der reckon P Wolf?
 
I used to drive a single engine 9m jet rib and the manouverablity was great. I've not driven the jet cats but it came up in an interview with the company that was having the cats built, but the contract was put back 6 months and I ended up working elswhere.

When I worked on a project on the east coast Centrica (?) were using jet drives and gave up long before we were unable to survey due to the swell.

The other rumour I have heard is that the flexing between the 2 hulls, due in part to having the widest possible deck space is causing problems and some (fishing boats) are having to have braces fitted.

W.
 
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