Two upgraded Spanish vessels back at work

Spanish maritime survey and ROV services operator ACSM has put its 25-year-old offshore support vessel (OSV) Nautilus back to service after a couple of months of upgrade work.

The 73-meter-long vessel completed its upgrading phase at the shipyard Viana do Castelo in Spain, after which it spent a few days at ACSM’s base in Vigo for final tuning.

The refit included the installation of a new gondola, equipped with a KONGSBERG EM124 multibeam echo sounder.

“The Nautilus is back at work after a major refit in which we have been immersed for the last few months,” ACSM said. “The Nautilus returns with new capabilities to carry out high quality seabed surveys: in real time, with a minimum impact on the environment and with great versatility to provide different services.”

The vessel was built in 2001 by the Appledore Shipyard, Devon, UK, and is permanently equipped with work-class remotely operated vehicles (WROVs), trenching machines and survey equipment. It offers accommodation for 44 persons.

In a separate announcement from a couple of days ago, ACSM noted that its OSV Artabro, currently working on a “strategic energy infrastructure project” in the Mediterranean, had been equipped with a new crane that has a capacity of 25 tons.

This has increased the vessel’s capacity for mattress installation and boulder removal.

The 90-meter-long vessel joined the ACSM fleet in 2021. It provides accommodation for 50 people.