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Iceni Venture delivered

4C Offshore | Lewis Holdsworth
By: Lewis Holdsworth 09/06/2015 South Boats IOW
South Boats IOW Ltd, manufacturer of Wind Farm Crew Transfer Vessels (CTV’s), has delivered the South Cat 23m, ‘Iceni Venture’ to Iceni Marine Services Ltd.  The vessel has started work on an O&M contract with SSE on the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm but is to return and be debuted at the Seawork 2015 exhibition.

Following the Offshore Wind Industry’s largest and most comprehensive assessment of CTV hull forms including SWATH, semi-SWATH, fine entry catamaran, full buoyancy catamaran and ‘D’ bow designs; tested both theoretically and will self-propelled models, a thorough evaluation was carried out between South Boats IOW and specialist consultants to understand why each form behaved as it did, their respective strengths and weaknesses and to formulate some criteria for development of new South Boats IOW hull forms.  The first of which, are the all new 26m and 23m.

‘Iceni Venture’ uses Servogear’s Ecoflow Propulsors and a specially designed tunnel arrangement to maximise performance and efficiency.

On trials the 23.1m catamaran has exceeded all expectations and is genuinely considered to be a game changer in its class.  Powered by twin MAN V12-1400 main engines the vessel achieved a sprint speed of 32 knots and a continuous service speed in excess of 29 knots at 85% engine load.  More impressive is that the vessel was able to maintain this performance, comfortably in excess of 1.25m Hs wave height in any direction.  


One utility company representative on-board for trials states that fuel efficiency at 23 knots was 35% better than a smaller, significantly less capable vessel he had on charter in Germany.

Equally impressive was the vessels load carrying capability, recording only a 2 knot loss of performance at 85% load with 15 tonnes on deck and incredibly maintaining 21 knots at 60% engine load with the same payload.

Sea trials data has been independently verified by specialist consultants to correlate trials data with initial tank testing data.

Initial trials against a boat landing have been carried out during site weather days and the vessel reports zero vertical movement, enabling safe transfers at 40% engine load in 2.2m Hs increasing to 55% engine load in 2.4m Hs.  These figures dramatically reduce daily fuel burn and increase the vessels working capabilities to levels that will worry operators of much larger vessels.

The Servogear CPP system has 1225mm diameter propellers and produces 17 tonnes of bollard pull, significantly higher than comparable water jet, fixed pitch propeller and linear jet propulsion systems already working in the sector.

Richard Thurlow of Iceni Marine Services Ltd:  “It is ridiculous how capable this vessel is, we are outworking every other vessel on the project by considerable margins and feel that with this hull form and this propulsion package we could work this vessel on any European project and out work many of the significantly larger vessels.  We have higher transit and transfer capabilities, higher service speeds, higher passenger comfort coupled to lower fuel consumption and lower noise and vibration levels, the holy grail for utility companies, primary contractors and of course operators.  This vessel is a game-changer.”

Ben Colman of South Boats IOW Ltd: “Since the model testing, we have been very excited about this new design, we knew that if it could achieve the predicted sea-keeping limitations we knew we would be setting a new benchmark.  The ‘Iceni Venture’ does not disappoint and has proven itself to be every bit as capable as its initial calculations and model testing predictions.  Thanks to the comprehensive hull form development testing and understanding, we have produced a first of class vessel that is as capable as significantly larger vessels but without the CAPEX of these larger craft.  Designed to operate in UK and European sea conditions, we expect the ‘Iceni Venture’, and her three sister vessels (currently in build), to increase safe working limits on their respective projects.”

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