North Star Launches Recruitment Drive

North Star, which describes itself as the UK’s leading infrastructure vessel support operator, has announced that it has launched a recruitment drive.

The company, which revealed that it is looking for “experienced crew” ahead of its first hybrid-powered offshore wind fleet arriving in UK waters early next year, said it is aiming to hire 42 qualified seafarers in the next couple of months. This will mark the beginning of a commitment to recruit over 170 seafarers across the next 18 months to support the first of the company’s four new service operations vessels (SOVs), North Star highlighted.

The company noted that it is looking to hire personnel into roles including ship’s master, chief officer, second officer, gangway and crane operators, as well as electrical engineers. All SOVs are destined for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm development off the East Yorkshire coast, North Star said.

“Over the past 135 years, the business has expanded from fishing into oil and gas, and now into offshore wind,” Steve Myers, North Star’s SOV operations director, said in a company statement.

“As our unique vessel design utilizes the most cutting-edge solutions, including AI and machine learning technologies, walk-to-work gangways, and dynamic positioning, we have developed a program of transition training to help upskill our current crew with their offshore wind career ambitions,” he added.

“The additional new hires will work across both the SOVs as well as backfill openings within our existing fleet, ensuring we maintain our inclusive company culture and leverage a collective expertise to deliver safe and efficient operations in-field,” Myers continued.

North Star noted that its latest recruitment drive is underpinned by its ongoing cadet program, which it revealed it invests $1.21 million (GBP 1 million) in annually.

“Investment in the new generation is at the heart of what we do and, with scalability being one of our core missions, this recruitment drive supports the next phase of our ambitious offshore wind growth plan to achieve a fleet of 40 new SOVs by 2040,” North Star CEO Matthew Gordon said.  

“We are not just hiring people to carry out a job, we aim to create a strong pipeline of skilled talent as we encourage and support our people to develop their careers,” he added.

North Star highlighted that it currently employs 1,300 personnel and that its in-house crewing department currently ensures its 41 emergency response and rescue vessels continue to provide uninterrupted support to 50 offshore oil and gas installations in the North Sea.  

Earlier this month, North Star announced that it had secured a $169.44 million (GBP 140 million) financing package to support the next phase of its “ambitious offshore wind growth plan as it looks to broaden its position as the UK’s leading service operations vessel operator and seize new opportunities in Europe”.  

The investment included a $60.51 million (GBP 50 million) commitment from the Scottish National Investment Bank, as well as IFM Investors, Edmond de Rothschild’s BRIDGE, and RBC Capital Markets, North Star revealed.

North Star - which has bases in Aberdeen, Lowestoft and Newcastle - entered the offshore wind market last year after winning all four long-term charter SOV awards for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm. The company is owned by Partners Group, a global private markets firm acting on behalf of its clients.

Back in January this year, North Star announced that Partners Group, had agreed, on behalf of its clients, to acquire North Star from Basalt Infrastructure Partners. In a company statement at the time, North Start outlined that Partners Group aimed to transform North Star into a “leading next-generation offshore wind infrastructure services company”.

In March this year, North Star announced that it had been awarded “a raft” of new contracts totaling more than $121.03 million (GBP 100 million) to support new and existing clients in the UK Continental Shelf “with its fast-response emergency fleet, purpose built to protect personnel working on offshore oil and gas platforms”.

With additional year charter options, the deal marked North Star’s most sizeable emergency response rescue vessel orderbook in recent years, the company highlighted.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com