HUSKY is operated by a Wicklow based Company called Hydroserv, she arrived summer 2005 and is based at Arklow to work on the wind farm . She spent a week last year working out of Wicklow on a survey in the bay .
HUSKY was designed and built to Lloyds Classification in Kuching, Sarawak - East Malaysia. She entered service in 1987 in the South China Sea on contract to Shell mooring tankers in the oil and gas fields there. She does not have funnels as might have been expected of a tug - but she has wet exhausts, a requirement for vessels working in oil and gas operations to be spark free. She also has a sea water drenching system in the steel frame around her wheelhouse.
HUSKY is referred to as an 'intrinsically safe vessel' i.e. spark free. Since bringing HUSKY into Ireland, a winch and an 'A' Frame have been added to enable the vessel to carry out seabed sampling and underwater construction works. It is planned to add a hydraulic deck crane and a 10 tonne towing winch in the near future. HUSKY can be quickly configured for many different tasks, such as towing, diving, salvage, survey/sampling, pollution cleanup.
