News
06-06-2008
BARD Group to cooperate with Wulf Shipping
Tug company announces expansion in Cuxhaven
BARD Building GmbH & Co. KG of Emden, part of BARD Group, has signed a ship management contract for its jack-up vessel platform with Wulf Seetransporte GmbH & Co. KG of Cuxhaven. This special ship for erection of offshore wind energy converters will have a crew of up to 50 members and is presently being built at Western Shipyard in Klaipeda, Lithuania. For some months now, employees of the tug company have been monitoring the work on "Wind Lift I" in the Baltic. The BARD vessel is a little over 100 m long and is able to raise itself out of the water on four 70 m high legs. The crane on the main deck has a maximum lifting height of 121 m and can handle weights of up to 500 tonnes. The jack-up vessel also has a special template for laying the „BARD Tripile” foundations for the BARD offshore wind power generators. In a joint press release of the two parties, Andreas Wulf, Managing Director of Otto Wulf GmbH & Co. KG, announced the expansion of the Cuxhaven Operations Centre: “We shall be taking on at least 16 people and double our office space." Building work in the harbour area is due to start in the next few weeks, reaching completion by January 2009. Wulf Shipping will provide the nautical crew for the ship and handle all logistics and supplies from spare parts to provisions.
Andree Krüger, Managing Director of BARD Building GmbH & Co. KG, is confident that Wulf Shipping is the right partner for this challenging project: “Round-the-clock readiness every day of the year is nothing new for this shipping company.” Experience from past cooperations has also been highly satisfactory. Among other tasks, tugboats from Cuxhaven towed the pontoons with the large parts from the BARD wind turbine production in the Jarssumer Dock in Emden to their berth at Knock near the test site on Rysumer Nacken. Two “BARD VM” prototypes both of 5 MW rated output have been in operation there since the end of last year. Otto Wulf GmbH & Co. KG operates a total of eight tugboats of various types and is active throughout Europe. “Wind Lift I” is due for delivery at the end of March 2009, after which the erection of 80 turbines can begin on the "BARD Offshore 1" wind farm about 100 km north-west of the island of Borkum.