VESSEL REVIEW | Guohai Minkang – Haifu Industrial’s newest 97m multi-role OSVs

China Shipbuilding Industry Company (CSIC), through subsidiary Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, has handed over two new offshore support vessels (OSVs) in a series to local owner Haifu Industrial Shanghai.

Guohai Minkang and Guohai Minan will be operated on behalf of Haifu Industrial by Guohai Offshore Asset Management, which will use them to support the activities of clients in the Chinese offshore wind market. Specifically, the OSVs will primarily operate as platforms from which technicians will carry out commissioning and maintenance of offshore wind turbines.

The construction of the OSVs was originally delegated to Qingdao Wuchuan Heavy Industry (QWHI). CSIC took over shortly after QWHI ceased its shipbuilding activities in mid-2018. The newbuildings, which were in the final stages of assembly and testing at the time, were finally completed earlier this year.

The vessels also have onboard hangar space for housing two work-class remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), as they are variants of an ROV support vessel design that had been originally developed by naval architects Salt Ship Design of Norway.

Each OSV has a length of 97.24 metres, a moulded beam of 22 metres, a moulded depth of 9.2 metres, an aft open working deck with a total area of 1,100 square metres, and a forward helicopter deck with a diameter of 21 metres.

The aft deck is designed to carry up to 5,500 tonnes of equipment and other cargo and is also fitted with two cranes capable of lifting 150 tonnes and 25 tonnes, respectively. The cranes have motion compensating capability and can be used for the execution of installation works at water depths of as much as 3,000 metres.

Power for each OSV is provided by a hybrid diesel-electric propulsion arrangement wherein a quartet of main diesel generator sets with a total output of 11,000 ekW drive electric motors that are connected to two azimuthing propellers. Manoeuvrability for use in navigating in close quarters and for station keeping is made possible thanks to a 1,000kW retractable thruster and two 2,050kW tunnel thrusters in the bow and a 1,400kW tunnel thruster at the stern.

Guohai Minan and Guohai Minkang are also each fitted with a DP2 system, and the DYNPOS AUTR and DYNPOS E notations mean the vessels satisfy significantly stricter operating requirements compared to other DP2-equipped OSVs.

Lastly, MLC 2006-compliant accommodations are available for 100 personnel including crew and windfarm technicians.

Following delivery in September 2021, the two OSVs began operating under charter with SinoOcean. They have since been providing a wide array of related services including but not limited to turbine commissioning and maintenance, cable-laying support, underwater inspections, and general subsea installation works in support of offshore wind customers.

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