A century of salvage

OTTO WULF I PROFILE

A century of

2022 sees Otto Wulf celebrating 100 years of maritime services in the North Sea and beyond. Owners Sören Wulf and Andreas Wulf discussed the company’s illustrious history and exciting future plans with Phil Nicholls.

The storied history of Otto Wulf GmbH began in 1922 when Otto Wulf formed a salvage company. Captain Wulf leveraged his extensive knowledge of the Cuxhaven coast and River Elbe into a knack for finding lost anchors. This expanded into salvaging chains and smaller vessels which ran aground.

Post-war expansion meant a bustling shipbuilding industry in Europe. Otto Wulf offered port assistance services, but also saw an opportunity transporting larger components like the hull or superstructure. This began with chartered barges, then expanded into operating its own barge fleet.

By being based in Cuxhaven in northwest Germany, Otto Wulf was perfectly positioned to serve the North Sea oil industry. The Mittelplate oil field was discovered in 1981 off the German North Sea coast on the southern edge of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea. Production began at Mittelplate in 1987 and represented a busy time for Otto Wulf.

German reunification in 1990 lead to Otto Wulf opening an office in Rostock, establishing a base of operations for the Baltic. Otto Wulf was an early entrant in the wind industry, both on- and offshore. The company transported blades and towers for the operation in 2003 along with the offshore Nordsee One wind farm.

Transporting wind farm components was a challenge when it came to the monopiles weighing 1,300 tonnes, as co-owner Sören Wulf explained: “What was special for us at that time was that we were really the first ones who had the guts to roll-on and rolloff these monopiles, instead of basically lifting them onto the barge with a crane.”

This innovative solution using wheeled trailers meant the contractor avoided the

additional costs for cranes at either end of the journey.

A contract with Airbus brought further challenges for Otto Wulf, carrying sections of aircraft between factories. Otto Wulf began with a conventional tug and barge operation, then commissioned the Ro-Ro cargo vessel MV Kugelbake, launched in 2009 with a capacity of 1,868 gross tonnage.

Kugelbake remains operational, running a regular service between Hamburg and Nordenham, near Bremerhaven. She joins the Otto Wulf-owned fleet of six tugs, a 50m barge and an 86m pontoon. To operate this fleet, the company has 60 employees.

A global reach

Growth and creativity are constant features at Otto Wulf. As well as the established office in Rostock, in 2012 Otto Wulf bought the Polish tug company Zakład . Usług Zeglugowych based in Szczecin. After almost ten years of operation, Otto Wulf sold on its investment, then formed Otto Wulf (UK) Limited in Edinburgh in 2021. Another new project sees Otto Wulf operating a charter for Qatar Energy in the Persian Gulf.

Further growth is coming to the headquarters in Cuxhaven where the company plans to acquire a large dockside warehouse as logistical storage options for the offshore wind industry and other partners.

The 100-year history of Otto Wulf is a varied story of flexibility and innovation. The current owners are preparing to celebrate this milestone with a written history of the company which will be published at the end of September. .

Managing Director Sören Wulf was clear about the benefits of following this Otto Wulf tradition: “We started as a pure salvage company, grew into ship assistance, followed the building and dredging industry after World War II to rebuild and renew the destroyed ports in Germany, went on with the transport of large sections also for the growing shipbuilding industry, continued with the oil industry in German waters to the offshore wind projects in northern Europe. We keep on going to find for almost every case the right economical and technical solution.

OTTO WULF I PROFILE

Andreas Wulf, also an active captain, is proud of the company’s crews onshore and on board the vessels. They often do more than only their job and they manage to make the customers smile when a job is finished as planned.

The benefits of experience

A recent project which epitomised Otto Wulf’s flexibility is the UNITED research into growing seaweed, blue mussels, eels, and clams around an offshore wind farm. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, the project explores the aquaculture options around wind farms within the challenging conditions of the German Bight.

“You have on one side, five universities and institutes who are theoretically brilliant,” Andreas Wulf explained. “And when we come to the practical task our experience from the offshore activities is very valuable. We are asked questions like ‘how big should the be anchors for the positioning of various nets?’, ‘how strong is the current?’, ‘which anchor should we use on that ground, chain or steel wire?’ and so on. Sometimes we are out there with trial and error at the end of the day. This is what our business is all about: a project which we really like, we participate, try to bring in our ideas and most of the time it works out.”

A strong partnership with suppliers is a keystone in Otto Wulf’s long history. “We are loyal to our suppliers as well as our customers, but especially to our suppliers,” said Sören Wulf.

“We have some partners for 40 years in this business,” Andres Wulf agreed. “Which is quite unique, because this relationship with older companies gives us a fair reputation in the market.”

A diverse future

Sailing into the next 100 years, Otto Wulf has embraced sustainability.

“We try to improve here all the time,” Andres Wulf outlined. “Our carbon footprint is getting smaller, but it has to be in a way which makes sense for us.”

Solar panels in the roof of the Cuxhaven offices provide electricity for the building and as supplemental power for moored ships. The MV Kugelbake has been given a fresh coat of silicone paint, offering 10% savings in fuel. Additionally, two new propeller blades will be installed to generate even more efficiency.

Sören Wulf conceded that the largest challenge facing the company is the impact

of larger companies in the industry, who he said are “Fighting each other on such low margins, that we are a little bit concerned that they are basically squeezing the market rates so far down that it also affects us.”

In contrast, Andres Wulf took a more light-hearted view of the future: “The challenge for all of the midsize companies is growing bureaucracy and rules. Sometimes I think that when human beings have no ideas, they make new rules!”

The next chapter of the Otto Wulf story includes plans to renew part of the fleet, retiring the older vessels. The current project in the Persian Gulf may also be a clue for where Otto Wulf is heading. Despite the broad range of services already offered, Otto Wulf is exploring options for even greater diversity. As the fifth generation of the Wulf family are being trained, the company is prepared to meet the needs of customers anywhere in the world. n