Naming new wind farm vessel of Bernhard Schulte for Siemens

The godmother Dai Ling named the second wind farm service vessel of the Hamburg based shipping company Bernhard Schulte and Beijing based ICBC Leasing “WINDEA LEIBNIZ”. The German mathematician, philosopher and physicist Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz proposed in the 17^th century to use wind power to operate pumps.

The naming ceremony was held in Ulsteinvik, Norway at the Ulstein Verft where the vessel was built. The vessel has been designed by Ulstein Design & Solutions AS.

Starting from April, the vessel will work at the Sandbank wind farm in the German Bight for Siemens Wind Power Service to ensure the production of green energy from 72 wind turbines.

The usage of the so-called Service Operation Vessels (SOV) will improve the efficiency of service operations at offshore wind farms. The vessel functions as a reliable and environmentally sound platform for wind farm operations and maintenance support, technician accommodation and transport, and the provision of exceptional levels of safe and reliable access to offshore installations.

“The vessel has the special X-STERN hull shape which allows to be positioned with the stern faced towards the weather instead only with the bow”, Matthias Müller, Managing Director of Bernhard Schulte Offshore, said. He continued: “Her award-winning sister vessel WINDEA LA COUR, which is working in the Dutch Gemini wind farm since August, has already proven that this leads to improved weather resilience, greater operability and reduced power and fuel consumption while on DP mode next to the wind turbine.”

Both vessels are co-owned with a Chinese company. Johann Schulte, representative of the Schulte family, said: “We are glad to add another vessel to our joint venture with ICBC Leasing and extend the long relationship with our Chinese partners”.

Main particulars of the vessel:

• Length 88 m
• breadth 18 m
• speed 13.5 knots
• accommodation for 60 people
• equipped with a motion compensated gangway system (Uptime) to transfer technicians to the wind turbine.