China's Cheoy Lee shipyard has recently delivered 'Shark 30', the first of two vessels on order from owners based in the Middle East.
The Kuwaiti-flagged 'Shark 30' is destined to supply, support and act in the capacity of a safety vessel, for offshore drilling and work over rigs on a 24-hour per day basis in the Arabian Gulf.
Cheoy Lee's 58-metre AHTS vessel model has proven to be popular, with a five-vessel order stacking up at the yard, all intended for service in the Middle East.
Specific duties will include the transport of fresh water, diesel oil, bulk cement, liquid mud, stores, materials and equipment, tow/move drilling and work over safety rigs, anchor handling duties, move men and materials between platforms and shore, and evacuate casualties.
The vessel design originated from Singapore-based naval architects Conan Wu & Associates and incorporates an all-steel hull and superstructure. The vessel is constructed to ABS class with the notation ABS+A1(E) + AMS FIFI 1 Towing and Anchor Handling Services.
The vessel has an overall length of 58 metres, a beam of 13.8 metres and a draught of 4.75 metres.
'Shark 30' can accommodate a complement of 22 men. All are housed in the forward part of the vessel. On the main deck level, there is one four-man cabin, although this deck predominantly contains the service and recreational areas, the galley, mess rooms, sick bay and cold stores. The accommodation on the forecastle deck level includes individual cabins for the captain and chief engineer, along with three double and two four-man cabins. The working deck aft is over 30 metres long, with an area of approximately 350 square metres.
The deck is sheathed in wood to protect the steel deck plating during anchor handling and towing operations. Deck plating in way of the towing gear is 20mm thick.
Propulsion power comes from two air-start Caterpillar 3516B diesel engines each producing 1,920kW, driving Nakashima controllable pitch propellers in nozzles via Twin Disc MGR 1727VC 7:1 reduction gearboxes.
Manoeuvring is enhanced by a twelve-tonne Schottel bow thruster directly driven by an 840kW Caterpillar diesel. Electrical power is developed by three Caterpillar 320kW diesel generating sets, each independently capable of supporting the ships loads. In addition, there is a 72kW back-up set that also serves as a harbour generator.
Deck winches are from MacGreggor Plimsoll, and include a 200-tonne towing/anchor handling winch, a ten-tonne anchor windlass, two ten-tonne tugger winches, and two five-tonne capstans.
Towing equipment also includes Triplex towing pins and a shark jaw. On deck, there is also a Palfinger crane to handle the rescue boat and also for loading provisions.
With a fuel capacity of 400 tonnes, the vessel has a range of 6,500 nautical miles at a maximum speed of twelve knots.
Fuel is cleaned by an Alfa Laval purification system, as is the lube oil. The vessel is also able to carry 485 tonnes of fresh water, ten cubic metres for fire fighting foam, ten cubic metres of dispersant for tackling oil spills, 210 cubic metres of liquid mud and 4000 tonnes of dry bulk.