The offshore wind industry faces significant installation challenges with the increasing size of monopile foundations. The ULSTEIN U-STERN introduces a safer, smarter and more competitive ship design solution for transporting, upending and installing large monopiles on DP. It enables longitudinal storage of monopiles and upending in the ship centre line. This allows the ship to head into the waves during the installation process, minimising ship motions and fuel consumption, while the U-STERN provides excellent shielding from the waves. Combining the U-STERN with transverse and longitudinal skidding systems, offshore lifts for monopiles are eliminated, as the main crane is only used to support the upending and lowering of the foundation.