Page 10: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2007)

10 MTR January 2007 news

Merwede Shipyard won a $200 million contract for the design and construction of a new Diving Support/Offshore

Construction vessel for Subsea 7. The intro- duction of this DSV to the market will pro- vide Subsea 7 with a versatile and advanced vessel built to a high specification. The ves- sel is being built to fulfill the requirements of a contract obtained by Subsea 7 from

Shell for diving support services in the

North Sea. Delivery of the vessel is sched- uled for the first quarter of 2009.

The ship has been designed by Merwede

Shipyard in collaboration with Subsea 7 and the dive spread Manufacturer, Divex. It will be a fully Dynamic Positioned Diving

Support/Offshore Construction Vessel, suitable for worldwide operation.

The vessel will be designed for saturation and air diving support work. The integrat- ed saturated diving system will be accom- modated in the midship of the vessel and will be suitable for a total capacity of 24 persons; eight diving teams, each consisting of three people. The maximum diving capacity will be six persons based on two diving bells, each for three persons. The dive system will be designed for operations up to 350 m water depth. Twin air dive sta- tions, twin observation class ROV deploy- ment systems and a well treatment system will be integrated in the vessel. In addition the vessel will be capable of carrying a 3000 ton carousel, work class ROVs and a 12 m long air diving support craft on the aft deck.

The ship will have a 6.6 kV integrated electric power generation system and it will be propelled by three electromotor driven fixed pitch propellers.

Principal characteristics of the DSV

Length, o.a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141.5 m

Length, b.p. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128.9 m

Breadth, molded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 m

Depth, maindeck molded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 m

Draft, design molded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 m

Draft, scantling molded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 m

Deadweight (incl. Payload) at design draft approx. 7,815 metric tons

Deadweight (incl. Payload) at scantling draft .approx. 11,000 metric tons

Ship's complement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150

Classification . . . . . .Lloyd's Register 100A1, Diving Support

Vessel, UD strength for load of 10t/m2, Helicopter Landing Area,

LMC, UMS, DP(AAA), CAC(2), EP, ICC and further to the reg- ulations of the Isle of Man Authorities

California Prisoners

Trained for

Commercial Diving

A landlocked California men's prison aims to keep inmates from returning to jail by putting them in deep water - training them for undersea construction and dam repair.

The California Institution for

Men in Chino sits on a stretch of former farmland about 64 km east of Los

Angeles and just about as far away from the Pacific

Ocean. But it houses a prison-based marine tech- nology training program where inmates serving sen- tences of 14 months to four years learn skills authorities hope will help them find jobs when they return to society. No more than 12 percent of the more than 1 600 inmates who have participated in the program have returned to prison - far below the average recidivism rate of 50 percent in California prisons, officials said. (Source: http://www.iol.co.za)

Subsea 7 Orders DSV

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