Uncategorised
On 14th July 2015, while attending the Attwood Osprey semi-submersible off the Northwest coast of Australia, an accident occurred on board the Skandi Pacific, resulting in a fatality. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau carried out an investigation and published their report on 23rd November 2016.
The Skandi Pacific is a STX AH08 anchor-handler built in Vietnam in 2011, and is one of two of the vessel type operated by DOF (District Offshore). It is a substantial craft 75 metres long and 3000 tons deadweight with, apparently, 1.5 metres freeboard at maximum draught. It has two bow thrusters, two stern thrusters and two propellers in Kort nozzles providing 180 tons bollard pull. It has DPII capability but due to the non operation of one of the bowthruster this capability had been slightly downgraded at the time. According to the investigation report it was crewed by “multi-national” personnel. But if this was true the nationalities were not identified.
The Skaustream on Regents Quay in Aberdeen.
And now (small drull of drums) we come the the UT704. I have been following a ship enthusiasts forum on gCaptain which generally claimed that all supply ship designs originated in Norway, a statement which is true only in part. In fact Tidewater used to claim the credit for initiating the design of the UT704, and incidentally virtually every European anchor-handler since, when they commissioned the Mammoth Tide and Goliath Tide from Ulsteins in 1974. These vessels were 218ft long with 8000 BHP provided by four engines. They were then the most powerful vessels ever constructed for the offshore oil industry and cost $3,000,000 each. But Ulsteins, even up to today have never been reluctant about adopting other people’s good ideas, and it is likely that aspects of the Tidewater ships were incorporated into their later designs, although they did not choose to include the gantry fitted to the American vessels, intended to transport containers from the stern to the fore end of the deck. The first 704 to enter service was the Skaustream built in Finland by Oy Laivarteolisuus in 1975, who also built three further vessels in the same year. It was powered by two Nohab diesels giving 7040 BHP, and was provided with a single 500 bhp bow thruster. In this configuration bollard pulls of between 90 and 100 tons were claimed. The design was the first to incorporated rounded quarters to allow the tow wire free movement during turns. Up to that time naval architects had attempted to emulate the stern of type traditional tug in the towing mode, while providing a roller for decking the anchors during rig shifts. You will remember that this necessitated the closing of a gate under the tow wire to provide free movement, and required a certain amount of dexterity on the part of the deck crews who had to make the initial connection with the gate open, and then close it under the wire. However the moulded quarters required the provision of some means of restricting the movement of the wires during anchor handling and for this purpose the 704s were provided with hydraulic pins which rose out of the deck and trapped the wire, almost incidently making the operation 100% safer. The design also moved the winch controls from a deck-house ahead of the winch to a position on the bridge. This at a stroke enhanced communication between the Master and the Chief Engineer, who operated the winch, improved visibility and kept the Chief warm. Later the Master was also given much improved visibility while manoeuvering, the vessel being provided with with a full length window at the after end, although in the earliest ships the funnels restricted vision on the quarters. Later this problem was solved by reducing the funnel height and extending the exhausts from the top. In addition to all the other advantages provided by the design they had controllable pitch propulsion, in a stroke removing the problems related to the change in propeller direction from ahead to astern and back. 91 UT704s were to be constructed between 1975 and 1993.
I know a bit about the UT 704. Back in the early 80s I was master of one of the last 704s the 704 Mk III Star Polaris, and then moved on to one of its progeny the UT 734 Star Sirius. In 1994 I spent some time on the Croatian 704 Brodaspas Rainbow recovering a rig anchor chain in 2000 ft of water off Israel which, despite the ship’s limitations, we succeeded in doing.
I am becoming aware that I am a expert in activities relating to the recovery of oil from under the sea, now a pretty unpopular activity so it seems, but I can't help that. Like it or not, we all still need oil until such times as we have found some other means of providing us with the energy we need, or have found a way of reducing our consumption. Until then we need the things we talk about on this site. And here I have included a brief audio about moving jack-ups.