Page 47: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2013)

www.marinelink.com 47GPA-Designs PSVs for Jackson Offshore Guido Perla & Associates, Inc. (GPA) won a contract to deliver the Design, Regulatory Design and Production Engineering for two GPA 675J PSVs for Jackson Offshore Operators. The vessels will be built at BAE Systems in Jack- sonville, Florida, under a contract that includes the option for two additional vessels. GPA worked closely with Jackson Offshore Operators to meet all op- erational requirements, giving the ships the features and functions that operators and crew members appreciate during operation and maintenance. The result is a customized vessel with optimized cargo capacity, improved fuel consumption, ease of maintenance, redundancy, excellent maneuverability, superb seakeeping and highest safety and comfort standards for the 34 crew members the vessel can accommodate. For the GPA 675J PSV, GPA is using their new series of hull forms designed to provide a more efÞ cient hull compared to previous de- signs. A new bow design has been developed that encompasses GPA?s special shaped bulb and forward sections that allows for better sea keeping on any sea direction. Many new bow designs offered recently are designed to favor head sea operations, but GPA?s design provides a more balanced bow that will en- hance operation in head sea, but also on any other sea directions. This gives a more overall performance to the hull by balancing the stern with the bow of the vessel. The Þ rst vessel with these new hulls has been tested in Brazil with the GPA 688SC PSV (PSV 4500). Eight of these vessels are under construction in Brazil. The GPA 675J PSV also incorporates notable features that GPA has utilized throughout the years on numerous offshore vessels, such as the loca- tion of the engine room on the main deck. The layout increases cargo capacity below deck and entails remarkable crew comfort improvements, achieved by adding an extra deck of attenuation between the accommodations and the bow thrusters and cargo machinery, two of the prime contributors of noise and vibra- tion aboard these types of vessels. GPA pioneered this engine room arrangement several years ago on the ten-vessel GPA 654 PSV series operating in the Gulf of Mexico. ?When we began to consider our ß eet growth strategy we immediately targeted GPA to develop a PSV design to meet the current and long-term needs of the deepwater offshore drilling and production market,? stated Lee Jackson, President and CEO of Jackson Offshore Operators. ?The design has been well received as indicated by the long term contracts we have secured on the two new GPA 675J PSVs we are building with BAE.? GPA?s independence allows Jackson Offshore Operators to be ß exible in their equipment selection and combine vendors that are most suitable for this custom-ized design. The main equipment on the 76-meter (252 ft) GPA 675J PSV in- cludes an integrated Rolls-Royce ship systems package inclusive of low-voltage active front end diesel-electric system and a complete propulsion package with Azipull propulsion thrusters. The scope of supply also includes power and pro- pulsion systems integration - including an advanced Acon automation system, an Icon Dynamic Positioning (DP-2) system and a fully integrated electrical de-tailed engineering package. The GPA 675J PSV will bear the class notation ABS, +A1, Circle E Offshore Support Vessel (Supply-HNLS), +AMS, DPS-2, FiFi-1, ACCU, SOLAS, USCG Subchapter I& L, Full Ocean, USCG EEP150 Notation, MARPOL Annex I, II, IV and V and increases the number of GPA-designed offshore vessels operating in the Gulf of Mexico to 22. MR #4 (42-49).indd 47MR #4 (42-49).indd 474/5/2013 11:57:41 AM4/5/2013 11:57:41 AM