Esvagt orders crew change vessel at Zamakona

JUNE 22, 2015 — Esbjerg, Denmark based Esvagt has ordered an 88.4 m x 15 m crew change vessel from Spanish shipbuilder Astilleros Zamakona, which in turn has signed an order with Norway’s Havyard Design & Solutions AS covering the design of the vessel and an extensive equipment package.

The vessel provides accommodations, all in single cabins, for 76 people and the design has been specially developed for Esvagt which intends is to make crew changeovers in its 43 vessel offshore support fleet more cost efficient by transferring crews while the vessels are at sea instead of having to be moored at quay, which has been the principle for crew-change within Esvagt for more than 25 years. The crew changeovers will also be combined with drills and the training of crews on Esvagt’s standby fleet.

To be delivered in second quarter 2017, the vessel will be built to a new Havyard 931 CCV (Crew Change Vessel) design, with Havyard supplied equipment including , among other things, propulsion system, navigation, automation and dynamic positioning system (DP).

The Havyard 931 CCV design has been developed especially to enable personnel to be transported quickly and safely, with as little fuel consumption as possible.

Havyard has carried out an extensive R&D program in recent years with a particular emphasis has been placed on fuel consumption and on optimizing ships’ seaworthiness in relation to the conditions in the waters it will operate in most of the time.

“When developing Havyard 931 CCV, the biggest design challenges have been the goal of extremely low fuel consumption and stringent requirements as regards accommodation and stability, criteria that often pull in different directions,” says Havyard Design Manager Leine. “We have been working for a long time, with many repetitions of calculations and simulations of the principal dimensions, and the engine and propulsion concept, where there has been constant focus on fuel consumption and emissions to the environment. We have ended up with a hybrid diesel-electric propulsion solution with batteries, where we vary the RPM of the diesel engines to optimize fuel consumption.

“I cannot reveal much more than that, but I can say that the results we have achieved have attracted attention in both the research community and the rest of the industry. And we can use these results in our further development of new designs and concepts.”

According to Zamakona, the hybrid diesel electric propulsion system will deliver fuel savings of 13%, with further savings of 5% coming from a Hull Vane at the stern.

This will be the fourth vessel Havyard Design & Solutions has designed for Esvagt. The first three ships, of the Havyard 832 SOV type, have been delivered/will be delivered from Havyard’s own shipyard in Leirvik, Norway.

Zamakona has previously delivered three ships to Esvagt.