GMS Endeavour
Jack-up barge in Yarmouth poised for windfarm work
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
4:01 PM
A HUGE jack-up barge sitting in Great Yarmouth’s outer harbour is poised to begin the transportation of components for 88 turbines for the Sheringham Shoal windfarm.
Having arrived from Abu Dhabi, its role is to carry the top sections and blades for the turbines and install them on monopoles which are already in place.
Taking three parts per voyage, GMS Endeavour will make numerous trips until all 88 turbines are up and running in around a year’s time.
Andy Surplice, operations manager for ships agent Seletar Shipping said the 25-crew was likely to double over its year in port, bringing spin-off benefits to local companies like taxi firms and hotels.
He said it was United Arab Emirate’s-based GMS Gulf Marine Service’s first venture into the North Sea as part of Danish company A2Sea’s contract to use the harbour as a base for the Sheringham project.
The barge is able to sail around the coast by retracting its legs and then putting them down when it reaches its destination where it jacks itself up out of the water, looking more like an oil rig than a barge.
A2Sea has installed 60pc of wind turbines across Europe - including those at Scroby Sands - and chose the outer harbour ahead of the Lowestoft port because the entrance was big enough for the company’s barges.
The turbines at Sheringham each measure 125m high and will provide enough power annually for 3,000 homes.
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10 comments
Jack up in the roads?? The barge has to enter a port and will do on a weekly basis for the next year. The barge would not be here at all if the outer harbour was not here, it would probably be in Harwich and therefore local companies would not have benefited. Yes it has cost the taxpayers a fortune and yes I am aware of the the saga since 2007 and no, I'm no defender of Eastport, but like I mentioned, it's here and it's being used - would you be happier if no vessels were using it and used Harwich or the Humberside instead?
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andy surplice
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Andy, tripe! the local companies would still have got the work if the Jack-up had jacked up in the Roads. The outer harbour has cost the taxpayers a fortune for life with NO perks at all, obviously you have no idea of the saga since 2007
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John L Cooper
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
It may not yet be the Golden Goose we all thought it would be, but it's here, it's being used and it is now beginning to benefit the local economy. Taxi firms and hotels is not an exhaustive list. We have employed well over 20+ local companies so far, to undetake work on the vessel since it entered port. Ok, so it's not created 100's of new jobs, but is keeping some of those in jobs, gainfully employed in the meantime, which in these dire economic times, cannot be such a bad thing.
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andy surplice
Monday, June 20, 2011
would you mind putting my points over, that I enetered on Friday 17th please
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andy surplice
Monday, June 20, 2011
What a farse.Eastport are the biggest timewasters and i feel for the people of GY.Eastport are just in it for the money and think nothing of the people around them.They are even taking work away from lowestoft which is no surprise.The port and outer harbour is appalling now and we cant even see the ship movements anymore like we used to.
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vinny.p
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Sorry to disapoint, but 'taxis and hotels' is not exactly an exhaustive list - we have generated work for at least 20 different local companies in the last week alone and not doubt more to follow. The outer harbour may not be the Golden Goose we all thought it might be, but it's here, it's being used and if it's not creating jobs, it's certainly helping keeping those in related employment, gainfully employed.
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andy surplice
Friday, June 17, 2011
Jobs! So Yarmouth is somewhere I could bring a high tech high paying company to benefit from local infrastructure and world class education. I think NOT. At best any jobs created by this project will be low paid manual labor, which currently is what the town is set up to support. If we want to reshape our town it will need to be done from the grass roots, creating good infrastructure and world class education.
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Paul Morley
Thursday, June 16, 2011
First off it would seem the outer harbour is producing results. But think again! The port is just being used as a staging post for component transfer, yes taxis will pick up a bit of business and so will a couple of hotels for crew changes. But jobs to take those off the unemployed register 52 weeks a year, no siree! The owners of the port will do well for mooring fees, it seems every venture that the owners take on is aimed in their interests (understandable so Global Infrastructure Partners want a good return) But what they have done since 2007 is not nearly in line what the Council’s sales pitch to the Ratepayers was between 2000 2006
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John L Cooper
Thursday, June 16, 2011
".......bringing spin-off benefits to local companies like taxi firms and hotels". So no manufacturing jobs there then.__Like I have said before, one big, expensive holding yard bringing no benefits to the citizens, but benefits to Freeman, O'Toole etc with their over inflated salaries.
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Karl Hunter
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Would you mind putting my points un linr
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John L Cooper
Wednesday, June 15, 2011