The Netherlands Coastguard successfully prevented a disabled commercial ship from striking the turbines at the Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind farm in the North Sea over the weekend.
Multraship Protector, an emergency towing vessel (ETV) operated under contract with the coastguard, deployed to the waters near the wind farm after the Singapore-flagged product tanker Eva Schulte lost power and went adrift in the early evening (local time) of Saturday, October 4.
The tanker lost power while it was only one kilometre away from the wind farm and began drifting towards the turbines shortly afterwards.
The ETV arrived on-scene at around 10:20. Two coastguard helicopters and a response boat from the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM) were also dispatched to the area to evacuate the tanker's 21-strong crew if needed.
The ETV crew, with the assistance of the KNRM boat crew, secured a towline to the tanker shortly after 23:00. The ETV later towed the tanker to a safe area to allow the latter's crew to undertake repairs.
Due to adverse weather, the coastguard decided to keep the towline between the two vessels in place to secure the tanker instead of towing it to port or allowing it to sail under its own power.
The towline was finally released on the afternoon of Sunday, October 5, and the tanker was cleared to proceed to Ijmuiden shortly afterwards.
