News
25-09-2015

Safe and on time - Dogger Bank met mast trip completed

Forewind's two-week offshore operation and maintenance trip to its two meteorological masts on Dogger Bank has concluded on time, and with 7000 man-hours worked and zero incidents.

The trip, a regular review of the state of the masts and platforms, utilised the 78m offshore supply vessel VOS Sympathy and sailed from Newcastle.

One of the challenges with the Dogger Bank projects is their distance from shore and with Dogger Bank Met Mast East and Dogger Bank Met Mast West located 100 and 150 kilometres from the UK coast respectively, a standard personnel transfer vessel could not be used.

A total team of 42 were on board, comprising 20 vessel crew and 22 working on the operation and maintenance activity. This included inspections of the towers and platforms for anomalies such as cracks and corrosion, and scheduled checks, as well as a rescue drill for working in a confined space.

Those on-board included representatives from Forewind and one of its owner companies, Statkraft, as well as operation coordinators SeaRoc, and contractors from RES, PowerPoint, Remote Access Technology (RAT), Ampelmann and Renewables Consulting Group.

The next trip is scheduled for within the first half of 2016 as part of an on-going maintenance programme.

The team working on Dogger Bank Met Mast West