Valuable UK Order Goes To Spain

Ordered by the Edinburgh-based Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB), the purpose-designed vessel will support the network of aids to navigation around Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Construction has been assigned to Astilleros Gondan at Castropol in Asturias, a company with a long track record in special-purpose and bespoke vessels. Due for delivery in June 2025, the new ship will assume the name of the NLB vessel to be replaced, the 52m Pole Star, which is now approaching the end of her economic life. The existing ship was completed on the lower Clyde in 2000 by Ferguson Marine.

The draft specification calls for a hybrid power system to minimise environmental impact in sensitive Scottish and Manx waters. The requisite arrangements are in keeping with the ambitious environmental targets set out in the UK Government’s Clean Maritime Plan.

The concept design has been developed in collaboration with OSK-ShipTech of Copenhagen. The vessel will provide improved seakeeping and heavy weather performance relative to her predecessor, strengthening NLB’s capability in responding to wrecks and new navigational dangers as well as fulfilling routine operational tasks.

While an endorsement of Spanish commercial and technological prowess in the market for specialised, small-ship tonnage, the award of a further project in the UK public sector to a foreign yard runs counter to the aspirations expressed in the UK Government’s refreshed National Shipbuilding Strategy.

However, the deal with the family-owned Spanish shipbuilder calls for a minimum $2m ($2.4m)-worth of work to be placed with UK suppliers, plus the requirement that contracts worth over £25,000 ($30,360) have to be advertised in the UK.

In line with another stipulation in the contractual agreement, Gondan will create a special, fully-funded internship programme for up to 15 UK-based students to benefit from a range of placements at the yard during the vessel’s construction.

Trinity House, NLB’s counterpart responsible for the maintenance of aids to navigation, towing, wreck location and marking around the coasts of England, Wales and the Channel Islands, is also in the market for a newbuild multi-functional tender. Trinity House has previously had vessels built in Poland.