Wärtsilä Ship Design to supply design for offshore vessel conversion

Dutch ship owner C-Bed has contracted Wärtsilä Ship Design to supply the design for rebuilding its Seismic Survey Vessel, the 'Viking II', for use as a hotel vessel. When completed, the rebuilt ship will be used to accommodate and transfer service personnel working on offshore wind farms. The rebuild project is being carried out at the Fayard AS shipyard in Denmark and is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2016. The contract with Wärtsilä was signed in September.

Wärtsilä provided the original designs for the 'Viking II' earlier known as 'Veritas Viking II', which was delivered in 1999 to the original owners, Eidesvik of Norway. After the conversion, the vessel will have accommodation and hotel facilities for 125 people and will feature a heave compensated gangway. The converted vessel will fulfil the requirements for Special Purpose Ships and will in the future be named 'Wind Innovation'.

"This is a fast delivery project and it was essential that our naval architects could respond to the owner's needs quickly. This we are able to achieve and our design will result in a vessel capable of operating efficiently in challenging sea and weather conditions with a high level of passenger comfort," says Ove H. Wilhelmsen, Managing Director of Wärtsilä Ship Design Norway.

Wärtsilä has considerable experience in producing designs for the offshore wind turbine market, both for service vessels as well as for installation applications. Conversion projects are becoming of increasing interest for owners since there is a current over-supply of ships in many of the offshore application markets.

Adapted from a press release by David Bizley

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