Bernhard Schulte Offshore, an asset provider to the offshore wind industry, has taken delivery of its latest Commissioning Service Operation Vessel (CSOV), Windea Clausius, from Ulstein Verft in Norway. The vessel was officially christened on 4 September and will now enter service in the global offshore energy sector.
Purpose-built to support the growing offshore wind market, Windea Clausius combines innovative ship design, operational efficiency, and sustainability. The vessel will play a key role in commissioning and servicing offshore wind farms, providing safe and reliable accommodation and logistics solutions for offshore technicians and project teams.
“The new ‘Windea Clausius’ completes our modern offshore fleet which now comprises five state-of-the-art vessels,” says Matthias Müller, Managing Director at Bernhard Schulte Offshore. “The new ship and its sister vessel ‘Windea Curie’, which has been already delivered in June, are characterised by their innovative design features focused on reliability, operability, flexibility, and sustainability.”
“The delivery of ‘Windea Clausius’ marks another important milestone in our long-standing collaboration with Bernhard Schulte Offshore. This vessel represents the forefront of maritime innovation, with a strong focus on sustainability, flexibility, and safety. We are proud to contribute to the green transition in the offshore industry by delivering solutions that combine high performance with a low environmental footprint,” says Lars Lühr Olsen, Managing Director, Ulstein Verft.
‘Windea Clausius’ features two sterns and azimuth propellers at both fore and aft, ensuring optimal performance in Dynamic Positioning (DP) operations and enhancing fuel efficiency. Regardless of whether the vessel is facing towards or away from the weather, it maintains excellent operability and flexibility. With the Ulstein’s TWIN X-STERN design, the ship can minimise motion—critical for safe gangway operations as well as crew and personnel well-being.
Equipped with a large, height-adjustable, centrally located walk-to-work gangway and elevator tower for personnel and cargo transfers, the vessel also includes a 3D motion-compensated crane for offshore lifts of up to five tonnes. Onboard logistics are optimised with spacious storage areas and stepless access to offshore installations. In addition, ‘Windea Clausius’ features a height-adjustable boat landing system that allows for safe and stepless transfer of personnel and equipment between the Commissioning Service Operation Vessel and smaller crew transfer vessels—an important safety aspect especially while operating within offshore wind farms.
The new ‘Windea Clausius’ offers up to 90 cabins with windows for charterers’ offshore personnel. In total, there are 111 cabins providing comfortable living conditions for up to 132 individuals. With hybrid battery propulsion and methanol fuel readiness, the vessel is designed for low-carbon operations and is ideally suited for both operations and maintenance and construction support roles, particularly in harsh offshore environments.
The newbuilding is named after the German physicist Rudolf Clausius whose work on thermodynamics established fundamental principles for understanding energy transformations, including wind energy. The naming continues the tradition of naming Bernhard Schulte Offshore’s offshore vessels after outstanding personalities and scientists, as the ‘Windea La Cour’, ‘Windea Leibniz’, ‘Windea Jules Verne’, and ‘Windea Curie’.
