Rising to the challenge

Shepherding a ship the size and complexity of Harvey Sub-Sea from blueprint to reality is a tall task. A partial list of challenges faced by Vard Marine included:

• Designing a vessel that required a minimum of parts per ton of steel to keep labor costs low.

• Providing structural details tailored to Eastern Shipbuilding’s preferred production methods and processes.

• Designing a vessel to accommodate maintenance and repair over the fatigue life of the vessel.

• Ensuring that the hull form contained adequate stability, and that motions were minimized to suit a vessel with a 250-metric-ton crane and 150-person capacity.

• Designing as few hard turns as possible for the electric propulsion cable running from the generator sets, beneath the superstructure and around the moon pool, to the z-drives in the stern.

• Providing a simple tank layout consistent with Vard’s philosophy of optimizing functionality while limiting the build cost of a vessel, and at the same time ensuring probabilistic damage stability.

By Professional Mariner Staff