Back

Thursday 19th August - Wells Harbour staff visited the construction site of the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm, which is situated 17-22 kilometres (10 - 15 miles)off the Norfolk coast, north of the seaside town of Sheringham. The wind farm will comprise 88 turbines and two offshore substations once completed.

The construction of the wind farm requires the use of many different vessels working together.

The photos below show some of the vessels seen during the site visit.

The "Toisa Sonata", carries monopile foundations and transition pieces to the site from Vilssingen in the Netherlands. Its length is 87m, and width 19m.

The "Svanen", a self-powered heavy-duty floating crane, drives the foundation monopiles 32-36 metres into the seabed and mounts the yellow-painted transition pieces on top. This vessel provides a stable platform to position and pile the huge foundations, on which the wind turbines and offshore substations will stand. Its length is 103m, height above water 100m, sailing speed 7 knots and lifting capacity is 8700 tonnes.

The "Dutch Pearl" and "Aileen M" are two tugboats that assist the "Svanen" and other vessels on site. They travel between Great Yarmouth, Wells-next-the-Sea and the wind farm on a regular basis.

The "Jadi" is a guard vessel which monitors the area and keeps other non wind farm vessels away from the site.

The monopiles are between 44 and 61m long and weigh from 375 to 530 tonnes while the transition pieces are 22m high and weigh about 200 tonnes each.

Toisa Sonata

Toisa Sonata carrying a monopile and yellow transition piece

Svanen

Svanen with the tugboats Aileen M and Dutch Pearl

The Guard vessel JADI

Installed transition piece with the Svanen in the background

Back