Ulstein designs Van Oord’s subsea rock installation vessel

Ulstein has been awarded the design and equipment contract for Van Oord’s new subsea rock installation (SRI) vessel ‘Bravenes’.

Working in close cooperation with Van Oord, this is the first fully integrated design where Ulstein is responsible for the development and integration of both the mission equipment and vessel design. The vessel will be constructed at Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group in China and be delivered in 2016.

The dynamically-positioned vessel is a unique, innovative design featuring a DP-3 system, the distinct Ulstein® X-BOW® hull line and meets the requirements for Clean Design Notation, Green Passport and Ice Class 1A – PC7. Furthermore, the vessel and its equipment are designed for year-round operability in harsh weather and high-sea states.

Under the contract Ulstein will also supply the main Fall Pipe Deployment system and the majority of the ancillary systems of the SRI tower. Ulstein put a strong focus on simplicity, by mechanising the systems as much as possible, enabling higher levels of safety and control and as such minimising human interaction during the deployment and recovery of the fall pipe. The resulting system is robust and fully customised, able to efficiently switch between various rock installation modes and a wide range of rock sizes.

“Working with Van Oord on this project has been close, pleasant and pragmatic,” says Arjan Boezeman, Director Sales and Concept Development at Ulstein Idea Equipment Solutions. “We started developing a new, innovative fall pipe deployment system in summer 2013 and proved its feasibility by testing a real scale model early this year. It has been engineered to provide best-in-class installation cycle times in water depths up to 600 m and beyond.”

His colleague Edwin van Leeuwen, General Manager at Ulstein Sea of Solutions, adds: “We are very pleased that Van Oord selected Ulstein for developing this vessel and recognized the potential of our combined companies as joint development partners. With our extensive experiences in developing innovative equipment and vessel designs, we took a proactive approach towards Van Oord’s requirements. Together with their project team, we have been raising the bar to come to a more sustainable, safer and cost efficient SRI vessel.”

Main dimensions of the vessel are:

Loa 154.4 m
Lpp 147.9 m
Beam (moulded) 28.0 m
Depth (main deck) 13.3 m
Draught (design) 8.0 m
Speed 13 kn
Installed power 2 x 3,840 kW
2 x 2,880 kW
Positioning DP3
Class Bureau Veritas
Ice class 1A – PC7
Complement 60 persons