Mainport Edge, the name of the Cork-based Irish Mainport Holdings (IMH) newly acquired survey support ship from a shipyard in China last year and since relocated to Europe, is where further upgrade works continue, writes Jehan Ashmore.

As Afloat previously reported the 60m ship was to make a repositioning voyage from Asia to Turkey to undergo further works required by Mainport for its role in the international offshore energy sector. At the end of the year, IMH announced that it had agreed to a multi-million euro equity investment from MML Growth Capital Partners Ireland Limited (“MML”) into Mainport Shipping Limited.

Such investment sees MML become a significant minority shareholder in Mainport alongside IMH, in addition to the funding to initially support the purchase of the newly acquired Mainport Edge for around €16 million.

To recap when Afloat contacted Mainport they said after acquiring the vessel which was 90% completed in 2015, that the remainder of the works were completed by Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Ltd., and as such, the Mainport Edge will be classified as a 2023 newbuild.

In order to make the new survey support vessel suitable for the offshore wind survey sector, improvements have been made and include planned upgrade works in Turkey, where the latest update from the company, has seen the initial construction of new online and offline survey rooms, have been completed.

Also the construction of a new crane and A-frame has also been completed, and the delivery logistics are now being finalized. All this was conducted in a week, and the fact that the company had three prospective customers visit the ship is an indicator of the charter market from global geo-data specialists in the offshore energy sector.

In the forthcoming weeks a new support base for a remotely operated vessel (ROV) is also to be fitted on board Mainport Edge.

When these works are completed, Mainport will be able to add the vessel to the existing fleet of three survey support vessels that operate on the global charter market. The trio consists of Mainport Cedar, Mainport Pine, and Mainport Geo. The latter 50m vessel was the company’s previous new addition, albeit second-hand, as the former offshore supply ship Oya in 2021 was converted at Cork Dockyard into a survey/scientific vessel specifically to suit the requirements of the offshore renewables sector.

In addition, the holdings group, through a subsidiary, Celtic Tugs Ltd, has three tugs, albeit in the domestic market, based in Cork Harbour and at Foynes on the Shannon Estuary. The Celtic Rebel is currently at the Port of Cork's city-centre quays, whereas the Celtic Fergus and Celtic Treaty provide towage duties at terminals along the Shannon Estuary.