Back in 2014, 31st March to be exact, Ulstein Design & Solutions announced that it was entering a new market by way of the ocean going tug sector of the offshore market. Ulstein had sold design and equipment packages for four ocean going tugs to Niigata Shipbuilding & Repair in Japan and the vessels were to be built for the Dutch company ALP Maritime Services. The ships are primarily designed for the towing of large structures over long distances. This is a new market for Ulstein and the contract represented, at that time, the highest value in one single contract for Ulstein Design & Solutions. The vessels are of the SX157 design, developed especially for this project in close collaboration with ALP. The SX157 design has sufficient fuel capacity to tow over long distances, with the ability of towing at full power for 45 days. This is a niche market that Ulstein was eager to explore.

The Ulstein Group ASA is based in Ulsteinvik, Norway, and is the pioneer of the Ulstein X-Bow®, the inverted bow concept that redefined marine engineering. This unique bow form was launched in 2005, together with the first shipbuilding contract, and gained immediate interest from ship owners. The X-Bow hull line design has been tried and tested in all weather conditions and is one of the company’s main contributions to maritime history with vessels equipped with this bow design now being built at shipyards on many continents. So far, in excess of 100 vessels with this concept are being constructed or are in operational work around the world. This design introduces the gentle displacer, a tapered fore ship shape with a different volume distribution as well as sectional angles, resulting in a wave piercing effect at small wave heights, and also reduces pitching and bow impact loads in bigger seas. When comparing fore ship volumes with more conventional, bulbous bow shapes, the X-Bow has more displacement volume starting from the waterline. While a traditional bow vessel rises on the waves and then drops violently onto the surface of the water, an X-Bow vessel is less subject to the vertical motions induced by the waves and continues on course more smoothly, while maintaining its speed. And because it uses less fuel to get through the waves, it also helps to save energy.

Top of Their Game

The design characteristics of the X-Bow make such vessels ideal for offshore and towage work, hence being selected for the ALP order. Established in January 2010, the Netherlands based ALP Maritime Services originally provided consultancy services in the heavy transport and ocean towage market via a fleet of third party vessels before progressing into the role of ship owner. ALP has evolved into a specialist in the field of Ocean Towing, Offshore positioning and mooring of floating platforms, Heavy Transport and Salvage operations. It is an international provider of commercial and operational services in industry plus engineering, commercial and operational support and conforms to the highest industry safety standards. The company has decades of experience in complex and sizable projects and, at present, has a fleet of ten vessels at its disposal, ranging from 200 to 306 tonnes bollard pull. Speciality tasks include dual role capacity for towing and anchor handling operations, offering considerable project savings as one ship can offer two roles. All commercial and shipmanagement duties are performed from ALP’s Rotterdam Head- Quarters.

Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. agreed to acquire ALP Maritime Services B.V. on 21st February 2014. This transaction provided the catalyst to confirm an order with Niigata Shipbuilding & Repair of Japan for the construction of four state-of-the-art SX-157 Ulstein Design ultra-long distance towing and anchor handling vessel newbuildings, for a fully built-up cost of approximately $260 million, which includes the cost of acquiring ALP. Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. is an international provider of marine transportation, oil production and storage services to the offshore oil industry focussing on the fastgrowing, deepwater offshore oil regions of the North Sea and Brazil. Teekay Offshore is structured as a publicly-traded master limited partnership (MLP) and owns interests in shuttle tankers, floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units, floating storage and offtake (FSO) units and conventional oil tankers. The birthplace of the new Future Class ships, Niigata Shipbuilding & Repair , was originally established in 1895 as Niigata Engineering by Nippon Oil Corporation. Their first newbuild was delivered in 1906 and on 1st April 2003 the facility assumed its present day operating title. As the name suggests, the shipyard is based in Niigata City, Japan.

The first member of the ALP Future Class quartet was the ALP Striker. It may come as no surprise that the naming policy, as with other members of the fleet, reflected positions played by Footballers, namely Striker, Defender, Sweeper and Keeper. Dutch artist Bert Slagt (www.bertslag.com) commissioned a special painting for each ship, representing the name of the vessel. Bert hopes that his small contribution in Art form will inspire the whole crew and their management to successfully work the high seas. The ALP Striker began life as Hull No. 0081, the keel was laid on 26th December 2014 and she was launched on 19th October 2015.

On 28th June 2016 the ALP Striker departed Niigata shipyard for initial sea trials prior to proceeding to Tamano, Mitsui’s yard in South West Japan, for a pre-delivery dry docking.

Hull No. 0082, the ALP Defender was launched on 23rd January 2016 and Hull No. 0083, the ALP Sweeper, took to the water on 7th May 2016. The fourth of the series, the ALP Keeper (Hull No. 0084) was not displaying any launch date information at the time of writing.

Each 5,901gt ship is 88.9m long with a 21m beam, a maximum operational draught of 8.50m and a deadweight of 4,250t. Operational benefits of the ALP Future Class include the aforementioned ability to maintain optimal seagoing characteristics in adverse weather and sea conditions plus the capability to develop sufficient bollard pull to avoid the need for a third vessel when towing heavy structures.

The dual-role vessel (Ocean Going Tug/Anchor Handling Vessel – AHT) comprises a fully integrated dynamic positioning Class II (DP II) system and is classified by DNV with clean design and ice class 1B notations. The maximum continuous bollard pull achieved in trials was 309.6 metric tonnes and the AHT also features passive roll reduction tanks. The installed towing equipment on deck includes a Rolls Royce SL400-3T towing winch (402t capacity with a brake holding load of 675t), three drums for 2,510m of 86mm steel wire, storage reels for 86mm wire, a fibre-rope storage drum with capacity for 7,200m of 203mm diameter rope and two cable lifters. The winch on the towing drum’s first layer has a holding load of 675t. The Rolls Royce Anchor Handling/Towing winches are sited side by side. Other towing equipment aboard the vessel includes a 5,500mm wide and 4,000mm diameter stern roller with a SWL (Safe Working Load) of 650t, two Rolls Royce 30t pull Gog winches, two hydraulic capstans with a 13.2t pulling capacity, a Rolls Royce Tugger winch (15t pull), two sets of Karmoy tow pins with a 300t SWL, hydraulically raised/lowered vertical towing guide pin sets (300t SWL), a 300t SWL quick release bracket and two Karmoy 600t Karmforks that can accept chain up to 120mm in diameter. The towing equipment can be remotely operated from the bridge.

Aft of the superstructure is a 550m2 cargo deck area with a 2,400t deck load (maximum 10 tonnes per square metre). Sited here on a rail along the starboard side is a travelling hydraulic service crane with a 5t SWL at an outreach of 10m and a 3t SWL at a maximum outreach of 15m.

The crew accommodation for a complement of 18 Officers and crew is all located in the forward superstructure. Here can be found 27 single cabins for officers and crew members (with the total increasing to 35 berths for other personnel during long voyages), a provision room, a vegetable room, a meat room and entertainment/leisure amenities. Other facilities include an incinerator, chilled water plants, a stationary compactor, six liferafts, a rescue boat and a work boat.

The SX-157 Future Class vessels are also fitted out with X and S-Band ARPA radars, a chart radar, an electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS), two differential global positioning systems (DGPSs), a navigation echo-sounder, a doppler speed log, three gyro compasses, a magnetic compass, an automatic identification system (AIS), a voyage data recorder (VDR), a sound reception system (SRS), and a bridge central alarm system (BCAS). Communication systems include two MF/HF 150W DSC radio stations, a GMDSS power system, two GMDSS alarm panels, a navtex, two radar transponders/AIS transponders, three portable GMDSS VHF units, two SatCom-C units, a ship security alert system, a longrange identification tracking (LRIT) system and fixed / portable VHF sets. Atop the bridge on either side is the FiFi II firefighting system.

Long Range Goal

The AHTs are equipped with four MAK main diesel engines driving two 5,000mm controllable pitch propellers via Renk NDSHL-2800 gearboxes. Each engine develops 18,000kW at 600rpm. Each vessel is also equipped with Becker flap-type rudders, two 1,500kW Caterpillar BTT 625 bow thrusters and two 1,050kW Caterpillar BTT 419 stern thrusters. On board power is supplied by three 940ekW auxiliary generator sets and one 200ekW emergency generator set. The propulsion system provides a maximum bollard pull of 306t- 309.6t and a maximum speed of 19 knots. The service speed is 12.6 knots. A long range 3,500t fuel capacity enables this design of AHT to operate non-stop towing voyages across the Atlantic, Indian or Pacific Oceans for up to 45 days, without refuelling. Thanks to their multipurpose nature, these vessels are able to perform worldwide ocean towage of any distance, as well as positioning and hook-up of floating installations to pre-laid mooring systems, anchoring of installations and floating objects and disconnecting and mooring retrieval as part of repositioning or decommissioning operations.

On 13th May 2016 the ALP Striker was named at the Niigata Shipyard in Tamano, Japan. Guests were joined by the management of ALP Maritime and Niigata Shipyard, along with Godmother Ms. Nicole Celeste Boss who successfully christened the ship in the traditional manner. The third member of the order, the ALP Keeper, was launched on 7th May 2016. The second vessel, ALP Defender, had her naming ceremony on 27th September 2016 in Chiba, Japan where members of the ALP team and her godmother Caroline Steenbergen gathered to celebrate. The ALP Defender was delivered to ALP Maritime on 20th June 2017 at the Tamano Shipyard and sailed for Pohang, South Korea three days later to load her towing gear prior to joining the ALP Striker. It was the turn of the ALP Keeper to be named in Tamano on 13th June 2017 by Mrs Toosje Wevers , wife of Leo Leusink the COO of ALP Maritime Services.

It is interesting to note that the bollard pull figure for the ALP Striker is often shown as 309mt but her sister vessels are widely publicised as having a slightly lower 305/306mt bollard pull. Perhaps the standard and maximum bollard figures are sometimes transposed. These impressive workhorses will surely serve their Owner and their industry well. The first of the batch, the ALP Striker, has already completed several towage contracts including delivering a rig to Western Australia from Singapore.

Special thanks must go to Gerrit-Jan Fidder, Sales & Marketing Manager of ALP Maritime Services B.V. and Piet Sinke (www.maasmondmaritime. com) for the invaluable assistance with information and images.

Technical Specifications