This hull is for a small seismic survey vessel. Not sure how "old" this design is as most seismic companies have moved away from the thruster type propulsion and gone back to direct shaft drive. We were finding the thruster are not "man enough" for the abuse these vessels go through, Not only are they running 24/7 under heavy load but also have to put up with the shock wave from the air source we tow behind the vessel
Typically we can be looking at 4000CuM, operated at 2000psi and firing every 7-10secs being fired into the water.
This one looks to have been designed to tow 8 seismic cables, the vessel I am currently on (also an X-bow) is designed to tow 20 cables, each 8000m long with a cross seperation of 100m between cables - gives an overall towed foot print of 1900*8000m behind the vessel. It certainly makes for a few headaches when we are working in busy shipping areas!!!
Ulstein have built several of their X-bow design based seismic vessels, either in their yard in Ulsteinvik or on license in Dubai. If you look on their web site you will find the list of vessels built and their designation.
While we were in the yard, they had a dive support/ROV vessel preparing for sea, a smaller standby vessel in the shed being painted, our vessel thats was under completion and a competitors vessel under construction in the dry dock - all in x-bow format.
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Topic: X bow support vessel (Read 2862 times)