Burgess Marine Delivers Mainprize Support Vessel
Britain’s Burgess Marine has built an offshore support vessel for Mainprize Offshore at its shipyard at Trafalgar Wharf in Portchester, near Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK.
The 25-metre boat, the MO2, was delivered at the Seawork 2015, commercial marine and workboat conference in Southampton, when Mainprize Offshore also signed a contract with Burgess Marine for a second vessel.
Mainprize Offshore expects to create up to 30 new jobs in total with the potential for more from future builds.
According to the company, the MO2 will immediately be placed into charter service, on the day of its handover, for dive inspection work on the Greater Gabbard wind farm off Lowestoft in Suffolk.
Burgess Marine stepped into the breach after Buckie Shipyard on the Moray Firth in Scotland went into administration before completing the boat.
Mainprize, which has 20 staff, will manage and operate the MO2 on a three month contract to transfer personnel and equipment to the Greater Gabbard field for a dive contractor to carry out inspections.
The MO2 is the first vessel to be completed under Burgess Marine’s Surebuild concept. MO2 has been built with 70% more deck space than a boat of the equivalent size, allowing it to carry six 20ft containers.
The load includes a decompression unit, dry storage space and equipment, adding up to 23 tonnes of deck cargo.
With a hull built to the meet the exacting insurance standards of Lloyds, the vessel can carry a total of 65 tonnes and its fuel capacity has been increased from the standard 35,000 litres to 50,000 litres.
As well as carrying upto 15 dive personnel, the MO2 will carry 20,000 litres of freshwater for domestic and firefighting uses.
Manned by three to six crew, the MO2 has a Marine Automation Propulsion Ltd (MAP) integrated bridge system with Furuno technology including four 32” screens and two 24” screens for navigation and monitoring purposes, including radar and CCTV.
It has an overall length of 25.2m, beam of 9.5m and is powered by Caterpillar C32 engines which allow it to reach speeds of more than 30kts.
Work on MO4 is due to start in August following the official signing of the paperwork at Seawork.
