Ulstein enters accommodation vessel market

MAY 5, 2014 — TMA Group subsidiary CASCO Offshore has awarded Vlaardingen, Netherlands, based Ulstein Sea of Solutions (USOS), the design contract for the CASCO Enabler, a high spec DP3, 800 person monohull accommodation vessel.

The contract takes the Ulstein Group into a new market sector

Using the Ulstein Deepwater Enabler construction vessel design as a base case and working closely with CASCO, USOS took into consideration capital and operating expenditures and technical aspects that included safety, high performance station keeping, crew comfort and logistics on board.

It says that the result has been a commercially very attractive vessel for the owner and that this is confirmed by the shipyard quotations received which should make it the most competitive vessel in the market once the first vessel is delivered in first quarter 2016.

“Developing the CASCO Enabler jointly with CASCO Offshore in a very open and constructive dialogue, has resulted in a unique, unrivaled design for this market segment,” says Bram Lambregts, Marketing & Sales Manager at USOS.

Drawing on many years of experience in the accommodation sector, the vessel has been designed to provide a natural flow for personnel from their work to home environments, and for the most efficient logistics with respect to services and supplies.

The vessel is unique by having isolated, separated areas for accommodation, common areas and work areas.

It features an internal atrium providing for daylight in almost all of the cabins, and will have European standard fit out in all accommodation areas. Comfort for all personnel on board is further increased by having a free standing exhaust stack completely physically removed from the accommodations to avoid structurally induced noise. These are all unique comfort features, and the vessel meets DNV Comfort Class notation.

Features include an internal atrium

The vessel will be equipped with a telescopic gangway for safe and comfortable personnel transfer to platforms. An offshore crane with a lifting capacity of 50t @ 16m is located at SB aft quarter. The crane foundation and integration in the vessel hull has already been prepared for future upgrade to up to a 500 tons crane, including space allocation in the vessel lay-out for an anti-heeling system. The vessel also features a fire-fighting system equivalent to FiFi 1 class.

Main dimensions of the vessel are:

Loa 144.6 m
Lpp 138.8 m
Beam (molded) 33.0 m
Depth (main deck) 18.9 m
Operating draft 7.0 m
Service speed 12 kn
Installed power 6 x 4,750 kW
Positioning DP3
Class DNV
Complement 800 persons