October 18, 2022 Palatka, Florida
A keel laying ceremony was held at St Johns Ship Building for Hull 170, the second Incat Crowther 30 CTV to be built in compliance with Jones Act regulations in the USA. Owner’s representatives from WINDEA CTV LLC were in attendance, a partnership of Hornblower Wind LLC (a member of Hornblower Group) and MidOcean Wind, who will be operating multiple vessels in the support of offshore wind development in the USA. This first series of vessels under construction at St Johns Shipbuilding will go directly into service in support of the Vineyard Wind I construction project located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.
“We are pleased to reach the point of our second WINDEA keel laying. Our team will continue SJSB’s Crew Transfer Vessel construction program in covered work areas with the direct support of Incat and the oversight by Hornblower,” said Jeff Bukoski, President of St. Johns Ship Building. “We remain focused on infrastructure improvements that will contribute to the quality and efficiency of our aluminum and steel vessel programs required to support offshore wind developments.”
The construction of this series of Incat designed vessels also signals the official launch of St Johns Ship Building’s new focus on dedicated high-speed aluminum vessel production. The groundwork for this focus on supporting the construction of Jones Act Compliant CTVs was laid more than 2 years ago with multiple facility modifications and the acquisition of new production equipment such as the installation of a computerized CNC router for processing of non-ferrous metals and composite materials.
