Fincantieri Marine Group recently reached an agreement on a contract with CREST Wind, a joint venture between Crowley and ESVAGT, to design and build a 288ft. HAV 832 Service Operation Vessel (SOV). Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding Director of Sales and Marketing Justin Slater says, “we’ve been working on this project for almost a year. It’s part of the U.S. goal to get to 30 giga lots of offshore wind by 2030.”

Slater says, “this is definitely to support green projects like for the offshore wind industry which by itself is a green project.”

Fincantieri Marine Group will have the team at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding (FBS) along with Crowley’s onsite construction management group to complete the building of the Jones Act-compliant vessel to service offshore wind operations in the U.S. FBS will build the vessel at its shipyard in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin., and it will go into service in 2026. The vessel will serve the Dominion Energy wind farm off the coast of Virginia under long-term charter to Siemens Gamesa. Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding is currently building several LNG bunkering barges, including for Crowley, in addition to supporting the government work of sister-yard, Fincantieri Marinette Marine, where the Navy’s new Constellation – class frigates are under construction.