Wagenborg Starts Construction of ‘Walk to Work Vessel’

Recently NAM selected Royal Wagenborg to support their offshore operations for the upcoming 10 years. For this assignment Wagenborg awarded Royal Niestern Sander the contract for the newbuilding of a unique vessel: the walk to work vessel.

This vessel will have a crucial role in the maintenance and service activities at the offshore locations of NAM and Shell UK in the North Sea. On November 22. was the official start of the construction of yard number 848 at Niestern Sander.

 Efficiency by engineering

During the last months many preparations for the building phase were made. Many subcontractors were hired and the whole vessel was drawn and designed in 3D by Niestern Sander. With these 3D drawing all parties were involved. This way the vessel is already built once; repeating in real life will make the actual building a lot more efficient. “We know exactly if all parts will fit, if we can reach all locations during the building process. In fact we now know if the building process will go as designed”, says production manager Jules Blokhuis.

Unique design with challenges

The walk to work vessel has many unique components, which have never been seen together on one vessel, such as a heave compensated access system and crane, propeller system and a cold start up installation. NAM project manager Haije Stigter explains:“Due to this unique design we probably meet some challenges. The biggest challenge so far was the position of the cold start up installation. We would to have this installation below deck to create a huge deck area. Because of regulations this wish wasn’t easy to arrange, but together we were able to come up with a solution. If everyone believes in this product, we sure will be able to realize it! So far we achieved all planned milestones according our planning“.

Earlier this week the building officially started! From now on everything will proceed really fast. The vessel will exist of 7 sections which all have to be built in June 2014. A month later these sections have to assembled and another 2 months later the entire vessel will be ready for the launch. The vessels design is really unique and complex; we gonna need every minute. Production manager Jules Blokhuis: “We are really proud to build such complex vessel. Everybody is talking about it here!”

[mappress]

Wagenborg, November 25, 2013