Introducing new offshore solutions

12 January 2006

Olympic Shipping's UT 712 L

The UT 712 L under construction for Olympic Shipping features the full range of new Rolls-Royce offshore solutions, including systems for making deck work easier and safer, DP2 dynamic positioning, and a rim drive electric tunnel thruster.

A thoroughly up-to-date hull design has been developed with a bulb bow, Ice IC and Clean class, combining efficient propulsion and station keeping with low motions in a seaway. This 16,000hp anchor-handling tug supply vessel will be 78.3m long overall and 17.2m in the beam.

Olympic Shipping’s UT 712 L will be built at Aker Yards, Søviknes, and it will be the first to include all the Rolls-Royce systems that have been under development.

A solid workhorse
Stig Remøy, head of Olympic Shipping, says “We chose the UT 712 L design because it is seen internationally as a solid workhorse that is attractive to charterers. At the same time, the equipment package will meet the future needs of the North Sea oil and gas industry, which tends to set the standard for other parts of the world. In particular, we feel the need to provide the best available solutions for making life safer for people working on deck.

"Our background in fishing has shown us how good equipment is a key to success, and that investment in technology that increases efficiency pays off in the long term. Fishing technology has had to develop as fishermen have been forced to move to new areas and use new fishing methods. In the same way, the movement of the offshore industry into the far north, into ultra-deep water, and the increased use of subsea techniques and inspection class ROVs, is driving new solutions in support vessels."

Meets future requirements
"Olympic Shipping is based in Fosnavåg on the west coast of Norway, putting us at the centre of a maritime cluster of ship designers, equipment suppliers, shipyards and operators of specialised vessels. Competitiveness is the key to successful shipowning, and by balancing the risk and rewards of new solutions Olympic Shipping can offer the oil companies vessels that meet their future requirements, not their past ones; at the same time providing designers with the incentive they need to innovate. Our UT 712 L and its equipment is an example of this thinking."

Olympic's UT 712 L AHTS has a working deck area of 510m². All the normal supplies can be carried including glycol and base oil and there is tankage for 1,000m³ of recovered oil. Accommo-dation is provided for a crew of 28 plus space for 280 survivors under NMB rules for the vessel’s safety standby role.

On deck are two sets of the new Rauma Brattvaag shark jaws and towing pins plus the centring system for leading wires to this equipment. Two cranes run the full length of the bulwarks. Their boom lengths are adjusted to be able to pick up and place equipment at any point on the deck. They also have the Rolls-Royce arms and tools for handling wires. Each crane can handle 3 tonnes at 12.5m outreach or 5 tonnes at 9m, enabling five tonne items to be moved anywhere about the deck.

For towing there is a main two-drum winch with a 400 tonne pull and 550t brake load. A secondary winch is rated at 138t, and its drum is divided into two sections plus a compartment for sockets.

Rim Drive
Two Bergen B32:40V12P engines will power the new Olympic Shipping vessel, turning twin screws in nozzles assisted by two tunnel thrusters aft plus a tunnel thruster and an 883kW swing-up azimuth thruster forward. One of the aft tunnel thrusters is a new Rolls-Royce product – the first Kamewa Ulstein Rim Drive tunnel thruster to go into service.

The propulsion and manoeuvring system can be placed under the command of a new Rolls-Royce dynamic positioning system. It operates on the UMAS control system and takes its positioning information from a variety of reference sources. The system has the redundancy required for IMO DP2.