A Norfolk marine company celebrated its success yesterday by officially unveiling a state-of-the-art vessel to be used on the world's largest offshore wind farm project.

The Gardline Group revealed the second of three Alicats being supplied to the London Array wind farm project near Kent, which will power 480,000 homes by 2012.

The catamaran was blessed by Great Yarmouth port chaplain Peter Paine and handed over to London Array during a ceremony at Trinity Quay, Great Yarmouth.

The �1.9m vessel received the title of the Smeaton Array from Kent resident Sue Shove who won a Gardline competition to name the boat.

It will now serve as a crew transport vessel for phase one of the London Array project in Ramsgate where 175 turbines and two offshore substations will be constructed.

Michael Martins, business manager of Gardline based in Great Yarmouth, said: 'We started out in coastal services five years ago with just two survey vessels and six staff – now we have 12 vessels and over 60 staff.

'We will continue to try to employ people from the local area to bring forward the company because we believe it is a nice thing to do.'

'We are delighted to be officially naming this vessel the Smeaton Array.'

The 20m aluminium catamaran, or Alicat, is capable of carrying 15 people and reaching speeds of 28.7 knots.

It is the sixth vessel to be built by Alicat Workboats since it was first launched two years ago. The company has 10 more orders for vessels.

Steve Thacker, general manager at Alicat Workboats, said: 'We're immensely pleased with how quickly the business has taken off and the level of interest being shown in the Alicat. The vessels provide an ideal platform to carry out a range of activities such as diving, hydrographic surveying and the transfer of cargo and equipment.

'The success of the Alicat is based on their high build quality, fuel efficiency and low whole life costs.'

The Smeaton Array Alicat was named after the civil engineering pioneer John Smeaton who developed Ramsgate Harbour.

Gardline employs 1,300 people worldwide and has a turnover of �157m.

ben.woods@archant co.uk