OHT heavy lift ship completes tricky balancing act
Written by Nick Blenkey
Heavy lift vessel transported dry dock, ADBS-1, from Abu Dhabi, around the Cape of Good Hope, to Brest, France.
Norwegian specialist transportation and installation contractor OHT has released details of a challenging contract earlier this year that saw its semi-submersible heavy lift ship M/V Hawk doing a 40-day balancing act with a180 meter long floating dry dock.
OHT was chartered by Promaritime International to transport the dry dock, ADBS-1, from Abu Dhabi, around the Cape of Good Hope, to Brest, France.
The project got underway at the end of April, in Abu Dhabi, where the dry-dock measuring 180 meters long by 37 meters wide, was loaded and diagonally stowed on Hawk’s deck. The overhang of the dock, measuring approximately 32 meters long on each side of Hawk, in combination with the vessel’s beam of 55.5 meters resulted in an overall transport width of close to 120 meters.
OHT reports that thanks to the exceptional experience of its captain and crew, Hawk was able to safely navigate around the Cape of Good Hope with only minimal delays due to adverse weather and without stopping in any safe haven, such as Port Elizabeth.
Hawk arrived in Brest, France, on June 8, 2021, where the floating dry-dock was smoothly and seamlessly discharged the following day, with professional support from Promaritime in the coordination of the marine operations.
According to Promaritime, ADBS-1 was next towed to Damen Shiprepair Brest for two months of painting and repairs prior to be towed to the port of Rouen to get ready for operations.
