Flexible multitasking for CTruk cat

摘要

If one topic reigned supreme at June's Seawork exhibition in Southampton, UK, it was surely the current boom in the offshore wind farm support services market. From boatbuilders and naval architects to equipment, propeller and engine manufacturers, nearly every exhibitor appeared keen to express an opinion on this dynamic sector, activities in which have infused the marine industry with an energetic bounce-back from the recession-ridden gloom of the late 2000s. While it is almost certainly too late for newcomers to enter the market and build up a tidy profit from scratch, those companies that took the plunge and diversified into wind farm support a few years ago have found no end of work funnelled in their direction. In addition to generating much welcomed additional revenue from this niche segment, immersion in wind farm support vessel construction has enabled a number of shipbuilders to experiment with designs, in an effort to realise the most efficient and cost-effective modes of operation possible - providing lessons that can hopefully be applied to other vessel types in the future.