Brave Tern closes in on return

A multi-million pound upgrade of Fred Olsen Windcarrier’s specialist jack-up vessel Brave Tern is due to finish this week.

The 15,000-tonne vessel has been at the Franklin Offshore yard in Rotterdam since early November where it has undergone an extension of its jacking legs by 14 metres to 92.4 metres to allow work in water depths of up to 60 metres.

Other improvements in the refit include a 20m extension to the crane which allows a lifting height of 120 metres from the main deck space of 3200m2.

There has also been a software upgrade on the bridge and new radars.

Brave Tern (pictured) will now be able to carry four towers, four 8MW turbines and blades in what the company said was an optimization that will allow it to install the next generation of hardware.

Head of commercial and projects Even Larsen said: “The refit has gone to plan and is on schedule and it’s been a real success. We are ready for the next project which will be an operations and maintenance contract for Siemens in the UK North Sea.”

Bold Tern will undergo the exact same refit starting in March and finishing in June. The company has not yet decided on a yard for the work.

After the O&M work, Brave Tern will sail for the US to install GE 6MW turbines at the 30MW Block Island project starting in June and finishing in the autumn.

Bold Tern will work in the O&M sector after her refit until September when she will undertake substation work at Highland Group’s 402MW Veja Mate and it will then undertake turbine installation at the same project in January next year.

Image: Fred Olsen