Navalis Innovative crewboats for offshore wind farms

The NAVALIS project will design an innovative, high-speed crewboat to safely transport personnel to offshore wind turbine sites in difficult sea conditions, which will feature a robotic gangway for greater ease and comfort. Designed to meet low-cost construction and operating performance targets, Navalis will minimise the vessel's environmental impact within the renewable energy process.

In the course of the project, several R&D programmes will be carried out relating to hydrodynamics, embedded artificial intelligence, powertrain, vibroacoustics, eco-design and optimising enterprise organisation and management. The results of this work will be validated by real-life tests on a demonstrator boat - the 'Navalis Crewboat' - several versions of which may be constructed during this time.

The NAVALIS project is part of a move to develop marine wind farms in France and in Europe, opening up the potential for growth over the next twenty years in the market for crewboats (where demand at a European level already outstrips supply) to innovative companies working in the shipbuilding, shipyard and ship-fitting sector in France.