Norwegian shipbuilder Ulstein has recently revealed it has ten new X-Bow vessels under construction, building on the 20 it has already delivered to the market. The inverted bow concept was launched in 2005.
Initially developed for offshore support vessel, Ulstein says new markets are being explored where the X-Bow can be delivered. Recently the XDS 3600 deepwater drillship was introduced to the market, being the largest X-Bow ever developed to date.
Ulstein has developed two concepts for turbine installations for the offshore wind energy market, the Windlifter system and the F2F (floating to fixed) concept.
"The Windlifter is a dynamically positioned vessel suitable for single lift offshore wind turbine installations, and unlike jack-up units is not limited by water depth," said the head of customised design at Ulstein, Bob Rietveldt.
The vessel with an Ulstein X-Bow transports four turbines at the same time and uses a modular, mechanical system to skid the turbines from the vessel onto the foundation."
