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Hull-based Rix Sea Shuttle wins two new contracts with Siemens

Hull-based offshore vessel operator Rix Sea Shuttle has landed two contracts with Siemens, the provider of integrated wind power solutions and services.

The Rix Lion, the largest and newest vessel in the company’s fleet, has been employed by the engineering giant to carry out oil changes on the gear boxes at the adjoining wind farms Lynn and Inner Dowsing off the south Lincolnshire coast.

Another Rix Sea Shuttle craft, the Cheetah, will take engineers to and from turbines at the Walney 2 Wind Farm off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, as part of a three month extendable contract with Siemens.

The deals mean that all the vessels in Rix Sea Shuttle’s fleet are working at wind farms off the British coastline for the first time.

Rix Sea Shuttle provides offshore personnel and equipment transfers as well as fuel bunkering and secure warehousing services at 16 UK locations and is the sister company to Rix Shipping, which has been operating ships on the Humber and beyond for more than 140 years as part of the fifth generation JR Rix & Sons Group of companies.

Currently the Rix Panther and the Rix Tiger are supporting two cable-laying ships at the RWE Innogy Gwynt y Mor development, off the North Wales coast, for Reef Subsea.

Rix Sea Shuttle managing director James Doyle said the Rix Lion had been employed to work at Lynn and Inner Dowsing because it is one of the largest crew transfer vessels working in the UK renewables industry.

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

James Doyle said: “Siemens is a byword for the renewables industry in the Humber region so to land these contracts with the company is a real source of pride for Rix Sea Shuttle.

“The Lynn and Inner Dowsing work entirely vindicates our decision to invest in a larger vessel which is more versatile than the vast majority of other boats presently working in the renewables industry.

“The extra deck space means it can carry men, large pieces of equipment, even two ISO containers if necessary, and it is that feature which is making it attractive to Siemens and other wind turbine manufacturers.

“However, the other contracts we have in place, those at Walney 2 and Gwynt y Mor, show there is still a demand for the smaller vessels in the industry.”

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