Owning and operating a wide range of vessels in our growing fleet means we can quickly react and support clients on the more ‘obscure’ jobs. Although we specialise in offshore wind farm crew transfers, interconnector cable landings and dive support services, many of the same vessels can be utilised for the likes of surveying and ‘remotely operated vehicle’ (ROV) support.
Last year we provided CRC Sentinel, our flagship 20m dive support vessel, for a project on the south coast providing a work platform for Seamor Chinook industrial ROV. With Sentinel’s 4-point anchor spread, our crew were able to precisely position the vessel over various water outfalls and using the deck crane, launch and recover the ROV easily. With the fast development of ROV and surveying technology, the Chinook weighs just 33kg, has six powerful thrusters and can explore depths of up to 600m providing a real-time video link to the surface via an umbilical, similar to something surface supply divers use.
On other projects we have provided vessels purely to assist with ‘umbilical management’ for very large ROVs. Whilst assisting our client Jan De Nul on a large scale project in the Netherlands last year we used our fleet of 8.8m Open Ribs to manage the umbilical trailing from the ‘Moonfish’, a 130 tonne remotely operated trenching vehicle which was burying high voltage wind farm cables into the beach. Our vessels tied directly onto the floating umbilical cable and pulled it into the tide, ensuring the umbilical did not interfere with the trencher’s operations.
Finally, we have also provided numerous small Cabin Ribs to provide guard and safety boat assistance for ROVs when working in congested waters. With our bright orange vessels fitted with blue lights and loudhailers, we are able to politely direct other water users away from vulnerable autonomous vessels and provide emergency towing services should connections to operators ashore be lost.
With a growing fleet of over 40 vessels containing Open Ribs, Cabin Ribs, catamarans and even amphibious vessels, Commercial Rib Charter is your go-to operator for inland, coastal and offshore marine projects!
