St. Johns Ship Building (SJSB) held a keel laying ceremony recently for the second Incat Crowther 30 CTV to be built at the Palatka, Fla., shipyard. The crew transfer vessel is being built in compliance with Jones Act regulations.
Windea CTV LLC, a partnership of Hornblower Wind LLC and MidOcean Wind, will be operating the CTVs in support of U.S. offshore wind development.
The first series of vessels under construction at SJSB will go directly into service in support of the Vineyard Wind I construction project located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.
“We are pleased to reach the point of our second Windea keel laying. Our team will continue SJSB’s crew transfer vessel construction program in covered work areas with the direct support of Incat and the oversight by Hornblower,” Jeff Bukoski, president of St. Johns Ship Building, said in his remarks. “We remain focused on infrastructure improvements that will contribute to the quality and efficiency of our aluminum and steel vessel programs required to support offshore wind developments.”
The construction of this series of Incat-designed vessels also signals the official launch of St. Johns Ship Building’s new focus on dedicated high-speed aluminum vessel production.
The groundwork for this focus on supporting the construction of Jones Act-compliant CTVs was hatched more than two years ago with multiple facility modifications and the acquisition of new production equipment such as the installation of a computerized CNC router for processing of non-ferrous metals and composite materials.
