Page 7: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 15, 2000)

Vessel of the Month cal excellence and building prowess, particularly in the face of lower cost, subsidized competitors in the Far East.

Discoverer Enterprise — delivered in late 1998 — and its two sisterships are Ultra

Deepwater (10,000 ft.)

Dynamic Position

Drilling Units which are literally loaded with a bevy of advanced marine propulsion, and electronic products and systems,

Luis A. Mendez, which Hf them as commercial director , J some or the most advanced

Astano's 'Discovery' Series Uncovers Unlimited Potential by Greg Trauthwein

The last in a series of innovative, next- generation technology drillships left the building ways of Astilleros Espanoles'

Astano yard recently, heading for a neighboring shipyard for final fitting of its six massive Aquamaster thrusters.

Discoverer Deep Seas, at the time of visit to tour the ship in Ferrol, Spain in early May, was dockside in nearby Bazan for the task of placing its six propulsion units, as task made easier by Bazan's deeper water facilities.

Discoverer Deep Seas, along with its sister ships Discoverer Enter- prise and Discoverer

Spirit (the former named

MR/EN's Great Ship of 1999), embody not only the latest in drillship technolo- gy, but is a clear indication of the Span- ish marine market's adherence to techni-

Santiago Garcia,

Astano's md tonnage built. Measuring 834.5 x 124.5 x 62.5 ft. (254.4 x 38 x 19 m), the ship is a virtual floating, working community, dedicated to recovering resources from some of the most remote areas ever ven- units within process station. Additional- ly, the system can be subdivided in the following systems: Vessel Manage- ment; Power Management; Thruster

Control and Dynamic Positioning;

Extended Wheel Test Control; Drilling

Automation; and Fire & Gas Emergency

Shutdown.

The Dynamic Positioning (DP) system consists of six 5,000 kW variable speed azimuthing thrusters; three forward and three aft. The DP systems, which is called on to keep the massive 45,754-gt vessel on station and productive during raucous sea conditions, is assigned the

DNV Class Notation DYNPOS AUTR.

To ensure operation in the event of fire or flooding, one thruster in the forward and one in the aft is segregated. (Continued on page 32)

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June, 2000 Circle 320 on Reader Service Card tured by man.

The heart of the vessel, arguably, is an

Integrated Automation System (IAS), which is used to provide control and monitoring of the vessel marine and safety systems. The

Bridge/Control Room is the primary control center, staffed and located with- in the accommodation module. As the

The crane pedestals were modi- fied for addi- tional stability from the cylindrical ones fea- tured on the first drillship. very nature of the business of these high value ships is that of poten- tially danger- ous situations, critical sys- tems feature redundant cen- tral process