A Comparative Assessment of Crew Transfer Vessel Motions Between Inclined and Vertical Boat Landing Arrangements

Abstract

Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) are an essential part of operations and maintenance activities for offshore wind farms. CTVs, which are generally multihull vessels transport crew from shore to offshore wind farm sites to carry out the scheduled maintenance and repair activities. CTVs thrust onto turbine structures from the rendered bow and push against the structure creating frictional thrust to prevent the bow from relative motions. This study presents and discusses the results from a set of model experiments and numerical calculations to allow a comparative assessment of a CTV’s landing-manoeuvre performance between inclined and vertical boat landing arrangements. The hydrodynamic performance of a CTV in open water and the “thrust-in” condition using inclined and vertical landing arrangements are presented for different vessel thrust force and different fender properties.