Member Article

Hull family shipping firm expands fleet with £3 million investment

Hull’s RIX Sea Shuttle is expanding its fleet with the purchase of its biggest crew transfer vessel to date.

The company has ordered a Fast Crew Supplier (FSC) 2610 from Dutch ship builder Damen, which is due to be delivered in early July.

The £3 million, 26m vessel, named the Rix Lion, is seven metres longer than the company’s other boats, the Rix Panther and Rix Cheetah, providing a larger deck area of 90m2.

James Doyle, managing director of Rix Sea Shuttle, said they chose the model because it was the best vessel on the market.

He said: “The FSC 2610 is a vessel with an excellent reputation and our customers demand that.”

“The sea keeping abilities are excellent, meaning it rides the waves extremely well and allows boarding and landing at increased waved height, which is precisely what the market is demanding.

“It means rather than just carrying engineers we can carry anything – equipment, men, two ISO containers if necessary – and that makes it a true support vessel.

“As we immerse ourselves more into the renewables industry we believe there will be a great demand for these bigger crew support vessels in the future. We were ahead of the game ordering our original fleet and now I believe we have done it again by ordering the FSC 2610.

The boat is forecast to be delivered by the Dutch company just six weeks after the contract was signed.

It is built to a standard specification by Damen’s shipyard in Singapore and customised to Rix’s precise specification.

Arjien van Elk, Damen sales manager the United Kingdom and Ireland, said: “Rix Sea Shuttle is a new client for us.

“They too are a family-owned company and we are very happy to have them onboard. We are looking forward to continuing an open and trusting relationship with them in the future.”

Rix Sea Shuttle was founded in 2012 and provides offshore personnel and equipment transfers as well as fuel bunkering and secure warehousing services at 16 UK locations.

The company is part of the 140 year old, fifth generation JR Rix & Sons Group of companies and holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 accreditation standards.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .