Having turned heads at Seawork earlier this summer, the BARTech 30 ‘Seacat Columbia’, the first vessel of its type, has now been officially named, launched, and handed over in a ceremony in Portsm

Having turned heads at Seawork earlier this summer, the BARTech 30 &lsquo;Seacat Columbia&rsquo;, the first vessel of its type, has now been officially named, launched, and handed over in a ceremony in Portsmouth, UK. 
 
The new vessel design promises efficiency savings in fuel consumption of 30%, making it the first low emissions Crew Transfer Vessel. The BARTech 30 is the result of an innovative collaboration between marine engineering consultancy BAR Technologies, the naval architects Chartwell Marine, the manufacturer Diverse Marine and the operator Seacat Services.&nbsp; Watch the video and listen to how it all came about.&nbsp;<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UlAgP-zkjKg" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>&nbsp; 
 
The vessel was officially named &lsquo;Seacat Columbia&rsquo; by Ian Baylis, Founder of Seacat Services, and Martin Whitmarsh, Chair of BAR Technologies.&nbsp; Guests attending the ceremony were given an in-depth tour of the vessel and shown some of the key features that provide the new craft&rsquo;s superior efficiency and handling. 
 
The BARTech 30 was designed to address the two most pressing challenges of the offshore wind industry: vessel efficiency - and therefore emissions reduction - and the comfort in transfer, and subsequent effectiveness, of offshore wind engineers.&nbsp; 
 
In the first instance, many of the major offshore wind developers and owners are now beginning to look in earnest at the rates of fossil fuel consumption in wind farm service vessels.&nbsp; Secondly, any offshore engineering personnel beset by seasickness in travel to a project must be returned to port &ndash; meaning in practice that a vessel transporting up to 24 engineers must cease its transit to a project site &ndash; resulting in expensive downtime for the project owner. 
 
With its 30m ProA design, and active foiling systems to correct for pitch and roll, the BARTech 30 is able to minimise vessel motion and fuel burn &ndash; leading to an average increase in stability across all sea states of up to 70% and a reduction in total emissions of 30% over a typical operational profile - making the vessel one of the first Low Emission Vehicles (LEVs) serving the UK&rsquo;s growing fleet of offshore wind farms. 
 
Additionally, with the vessel able to operate in more challenging conditions than the current catamaran designs, offshore wind turbines may be serviced over a greater number of sea states, ensuring wind farm owners have more opportunities to better and more cost effectively provide turbine maintenance. 
 
John Cooper, Chief Executive Officer, BAR Technologies commented, &ldquo;Following our preview of the vessel at the Seawork maritime event in June, we&rsquo;re thrilled to officially launch the BARTech 30 here at our home in The Camber in Portsmouth.&rdquo; 
&ldquo;Having our first customer delivery is a key milestone in our development of the BARTech 30 programme, and we look forward to seeing further customer orders for the vessel fulfilled in the near future.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;In taking this pioneering design to market, we&rsquo;ve been able to bring in elements of collaboration from other South Coast marine designers and consultancies - and the Isle of Wight based vessel manufacturer - helping to secure a domestic supply chain for a key part of the UK offshore wind industry.&rdquo; 
 
A second BARTech 30 is due to go to Seacat Services with innovative CTV operator High Speed Transfers also ordering two BARTech 30s. 
 
Exhibitor; <a href="https://seawork.com/newfront/exhibitor/diverse-marine-ltd" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Diverse Marine Services</a> <a href="https://seawork.com/newfront/exhibitor/hst-marine" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">HST Marine</a> 
 
 
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