Offshore compensated lifting Sneak peek #1

A small first peak on how-to safely lift offshore wind turbine components from a heaving deck, out in the open ocean.

What you see below is (speeded up) footage of how we actively follow the vertical motions of a quick connector receptacle which is placed on a heaving supply barge out in the open Atlantic Ocean: Crane hook is static, the target is moving. It’s made on the Vineyard Wind 1 project, where we have started offshore lifting last month. By matching the vertical motions, the docking of the quick connector to the load is simplified. The horizontal motions are not yet suppressed, so it remains a delicate offshore operation, but at least the vertical stabbing of the connector is fully under control.

The heave compensation is controlled by adding our inline Active Heave Compensator (here the Heave Chief 1100, not shown in video) to the crane hook of a standard heavy lift crane. In this case, it is a crane on the jack-up vessel SEA INSTALLER, but it could be a floating crane as well, active on floating-to-floating lifts.

Lowering the connector into its receptacle can be done by our HC or by the crane operator, which ever is preferred.

Next step after docking? Compensated load build up and fast lifting the component from deck, part of the next sneak peek!