Blog

It’s often assumed that once an offshore wind farm is built, there’s nothing more to do until it is decommissioned in 20 or 30 years time. In realty, this is far from the truth! Wind turbines, especially those in the harsh sea environment, are actually incredibly sensitive machines and require constant maintenance and inspections. HereContinue reading "What does it cost to run a wind farm?"

Around half of all the vessels in our fleet have waterjet propulsion drives which has helped us to become known in the industry as ‘shallow draft specialists’. In this blog we’re going to look deeper into how they work and what makes them so unique in the market. The waterjet is essentially a pump thatContinue reading "Technical Deep Dive: Waterjets"

It will come as no surprise that drills and training are a cornerstone of the professional and competent operation of commercial vessels. All of our masters and crew are qualified and commercially endorsed to work on passenger carrying workboats, but regular exercises still need to be carried out to keep skills honed and to checkContinue reading "The importance of regular drills and training"

Did you know that CRC have vessels which are certified to carry ‘dangerous goods’ when at sea? This is a very strict and highly controlled area of vessel coding permitted by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and is part of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) code. What you may not realise is that manyContinue reading "Carrying dangerous goods and certificates"

A common question we are asked by potential clients is ‘how many passengers can your vessels carry’? This is a fairly critical criteria and for us at CRC, passenger capacity sometimes solely dictates which vessels in our fleet are suitable for each enquiry. Sometimes customers will require the highest passenger capacity we can provide butContinue reading "How many passengers can we carry?"

Lifting and haulage is a crucial part of our operations. One of the big advantages CRC have over other commercial workboat suppliers is that the vast majority of our fleet can be mobilised by road, dramatically reducing time and costs in getting a vessel started on a project. We’re lucky to hold excellent relationships withContinue reading "Behind the Scenes: Haulage Operations"

As our fleet grows, so has the CRC team. With this in mind we thought it might be nice to put faces to names for those of you we haven’t had the opportunity to meet in person yet. Director – Stuart Hedges Stuart is our Opertions Director and the CRC mastermind. Stuart is responsible forContinue reading "As our fleet grows, so has the CRC team."

We are frequently asked “How do I become a CRC skipper?” or “How long does it take to become a CRC skipper?” So, we thought we would give you an insight from one of our recently qualified Yachtmaster Offshore skippers, Jake O’Connell. Here’s what Jake had to say about his journey. I joined the CommercialContinue reading "Deckhand to Yachtmaster"

Following another successful and busy year for CRC the list, as always is endless when it comes to boat maintenance. However, winter gives us the perfect opportunity to give each vessel some TLC. Here’s what’s in store for us over the winter period. Some of the bigger jobs include: •  With the recent return ofContinue reading "Winter maintenance"

We’re always on the look-out for freelance crew to work on our vessels, especially during the peak summer season. We are often asked what certificates are required to work for us so here is our handy guide! All Skippers and Crew As a minimum, all our crew require two important certificates. In fact, virtually everyoneContinue reading "What certificates do I need to work for CRC?"

Here at CRC we’ve been lucky enough to have been involved in several new build projects, including CRC Galaxy, CRC Voyager, CRC Vanguard and of course our amphibious crew transfer vessel, CRC Walrus. These projects take a huge amount of focus and resources throughout and involve many people and suppliers. Sometimes we build vessels purelyContinue reading "What does it take to build a vessel from scratch?"

Nitrox diving is a specialist type of diving which uses a different gas mix for the divers to breathe. Often found in recreational scuba diving, nitrox diving is now more prominent on dive support workboats and offshore energy projects. Our flagship dive vessel, CRC Sentinel, is even fitted out with a state-of-the-art 2 diver nitroxContinue reading "What is nitrox diving?"

A term which is pretty common in the CRC office and among all our crew is ‘mob’ and ‘demob’. This refers to the mobilisation and demobilisation of a vessel, crew and equipment to and from a particular project and is one of our greatest strengths as we pride ourselves on being able to respond quicklyContinue reading "Behind the Scenes – Mob/demob!"

In last month’s blog we touched on how our dive support vessel, CRC Sentinel, is unique in the industry in being able to provide a bespoke four-point anchoring system. Designed and supplied by Hercules Hydraulics, Sentinel’s mooring system is a key selling point, enabling the safest possible dives to take place in depths of overContinue reading "Four-point anchoring"

We at Commercial Rib Charter are unique in the industry in providing highly specialised dive support vessels and services. Our two dive vessels, CRC Sentinel and CRC Tempest, are well equipped for offshore diving and meet the highest possible IMCA standards on design and servicing. Our vessels are ideal for a wide range of projects,Continue reading "Dive support specialists"

We are often asked what a ‘day in the life’ of a Commercial RIB Charter (CRC) skipper looks like. With this in mind, we thought, who better to answer that question then one of our longest serving skippers. Here is what they had to say when we put a few questions to him. What’s yourContinue reading "What do CRC skippers do on a day-to-day basis?"

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 andContinue reading "How can we assist on remotely operated vehicle (ROV) projects?"

Jan De Nul Group and LS Cable and System are jointly responsible for the design, supply, installation & protection and testing of the submarine power cables that transport the energy generated by the wind farms Hollandse Kust (Noord and West Alpha) to the mainland. The Belgian owned business contacted Commercial Rib Charter at the beginningContinue reading "Case Study: Supporting large scale offshore infrastructure programmes with a multi-purpose fleet"

We are pleased to announce that the build for our brand new amphibious crew transfer vessel, CRC Walrus, has been completed and the boat has been safely delivered to our client in Great Yarmouth on the East Coast! Walrus was a tricky build from the start as a ‘first in class’ vessel and has beenContinue reading "CRC Walrus is delivered and drives a new chapter for CRC!"

Here at Commercial Rib Charter we are able to offer a wide variety of vessels for a multitude of different jobs. A large proportion of our fleet are shallow draft vessels, with some being able to operate in as little as 80cm of water. Coupled with waterjet drives, this means precise positioning of the vesselContinue reading "Commercial Rib Charter: Shallow Draft Specialists"

Maintaining the high level of service that we are renowned for (and our clients rightly expect) is hard work and expensive – but is absolutely critical. With a fleet of over 40 vessels providing crew transfers, cable laying support and diving operations, we have a wide inventory of spares in stock ready to be fittedContinue reading "What spare parts does it take to run a successful fleet?"

In recent years all vessel operators will have noticed a large shift in conversation about vessel propulsion systems and fuel types, largely due to new government net zero targets and wind farm operators looking to drastically reduce their carbon footprint. RWE for instance are aiming to be carbon neutral by 2040 whilst Orsted have goneContinue reading "What is HVO fuel and why is it gaining popularity?"

In recent years Commercial Rib Charter have noticed an increase in charters of our boats to assist with ‘autonomous surface vessels’ (ASVs), also known as ‘unmanned surface vessels’ and ‘autonomous underwater vehicles’. These are typically small prototype craft undergoing trials to be used autonomously, with plenty of defence and military applications in mind, such asContinue reading "CRC and the future of ‘autonomous’ vessels"

Wind farms require huge investment and planning to develop and construct, but what is often forgotten is the amount of effort required to keep the turbines spinning when operational. Our 15m catamaran, CRC Gladiator, is currently working on a multi-year contract to provide transfers for technicians out to an East Coast wind farm 365 daysContinue reading "What do wind farm technicians actually do on a turbine?"