Norway's Farstad and Volstad families have revealed a move into offshore wind farm shipping through a new order with Fincantieri-owned Vard.
The shipowners are behind a new venture called Norwind Offshore, based in Alesund, that has inked a series of up to four commissioning service operation vessels (CSOVs) and bought a platform supply vessel for conversion.
The two firm CSOVs and the conversion of the PSV into a service operation vessel (SOV) will cost NOK 1.4bn ($162m).
The two options for more CSOVs would bring the fleet to five ships by 2025.
The two newbuildings are Vard 4 19 designs, tailor-made for worldwide services and maintenance operations at offshore wind farms.
The first vessel will be outfitted and delivered from Vard in Norway in the second quarter of 2023, with the hull to be built at Vard Braila in Romania.
The second will be built and delivered by Vard Vung Tau in Vietnam, for handover in the third quarter of 2024.
PSV acquired
The CSOVs will have accommodation for 87 people on board, with an option to increase this to 120.
Vard said the 81-metre PSV is one of its own ships that has been operating in Asia and Australia, but will now sail to Vard Brattvaag in Norway for an extensive conversion and outfitting.
This ship will be ready in the second quarter of 2022.
Norwind was set up this year and is backed by owners with a long history in offshore shipping.
Its chief executive is Svein Leon Aure, who worked for Farstad Shipping and its successor Sverre Farstad & Co, owned by Sverre Andreas Farstad.
Farstad Shipping was merged into Solstad Offshore in 2017. Sverre Andreas Farstad then set up his new company in 2019 with a bareboat-chartered PSV, the 4,100-dwt Blue King (built 2016).
Aure told TradeWinds this ship has been redelivered and the Farstad family is now focusing on Norwind.
Alesund connections
He said a third investor, the Kleven family of Alesund, is also involved. This is not the Kleven family participating in shipbuilding, however.
The Volstad family is represented by Eivind Volstad, who used to control Volstad Shipping. This company sold its last offshore vessels in 2015 and a fishing trawler in January this year, Aure explained.
A different branch of the family runs shipowner Volstad Maritime and is not involved in Norwind.
Aure said Sverre Farstad & Co began planning a move into offshore wind last year after realising that banks were starting to treat the oil and gas support vessel sector like the "tobacco industry".
The CEO said the company needed to switch swiftly into renewables.
Banks' doors are now open
"The banks and investors are much more excited and much more open-doors when we are talking about offshore renewables compared to oil and gas," Aure said.
"It's a totally different story. That's what we learned when we tried to raise money for growth in PSVs and traditional offshore vessels. The banks shut the door."
The rest of the Norwind team is also made up of Sverre Farstad & Co executives.
