Sinopacific christens new BOURBON AHTS SPA80

China’s Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group held a christening ceremony for a newly built BOURBON AHTS SPA80 at its Zhejiang Shipyard on April 22nd 2014.

SPA80 was designed by SDA, one of Sinopacific’s in-house design companies. The vessel is a small-sized, high-technology AHTS. According to Sinopacific, All indicators such as safety, reliability, maneuverability, operational efficiency and environmental friendliness have reached a world-class level.

SPA80 uses an all-electric propulsion system and is equipped with three diesel generator sets, with several thrusters installed both on the bow and stern. Prepared with the Dynamic Positioning Class II capability, the ship also features unmanned engine room control. Such technology guarantees that SPA80 can maintain its excellent reliability and maneuverability even under harsh environments.

In 2013, BOURBON decided to sell vessels from its fleet and retain them on bareboat charter for a period of 10 years. An operating lease framework agreement was signed with ICBC Financial Leasing Co., Ltd for up to 51 vessels. Christian Lefevre, CEO of BOURBON, considers this cooperation as an important part of BOURBON’s strategic transformation, “This innovative fleet is designed for effective operations and client satisfaction. Based on this perfect platform, BOURBON would like to establish a long and stable relation of cooperation with ICBC Financial Leasing.” 　　

All ships under this cooperation agreement have been built or will be built by SINOPACIFIC and are, for the most part, vessels from the company’s own brand “SP”: SPA80 AHTS, SPP17 PSV and SPP35 MPSV.　

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Press Release, April 23, 2014