The blossoming assortment of offshore industries have been responsible for a multitude of different types of conventional and highspeed vessels to service the needs of wind farm installations, oil wells and more besides. The requirement for Crew Transfer vessels has spawned a growing family of monohull and multi-hull craft. Any working boat show such as Seawork will demonstrate just how big this industry now is with pure personnel carriers and personnel/cargo carriers a plenty.

Crooner Cat

Interest in the Walk to Work (W2W) concept has increased as the result of notable helicopter tragedies that struck during routine flights to/from offshore installations. So, a new category of W2W crew transfer craft has emerged for transfers between ports or hotel ships to installations and construction sites. The conventional examples include hotel style accommodation to reflect the longer passage times whilst the fast craft feature a resilient passenger cabin. The Walk to Work ability is provided by a stabilised access platform that offers a level platform and gangway to access offshore facilities. Above the plethora of fast transit craft has emerged the Incat Crowther designed and Incat built 70 metre Fast Crew Boat (FCB) that takes the title of the world’s first FCB of her type and the world’s largest.

Founded in 1973, Incat Crowther is a naval architecture firm offering a diverse range of solutions for demanding applications, with an emphasis on efficiency, reliability, safety and practicality. Various crew transfer vessels, workboats, ferries etc have already been produced by the company that began as a partnership between Robert Clifford (Builder – Incat Tasmania) and Phil Hercus, a designer at Incat until the partnership was amicably terminated in February 1988, allowing each partner to concentrate on their own respective businesses. Phil Hercus operated via the separate and unrelated business of Incat Designs that later became Incat Crowther whilst Robert Clifford has continued to design and build through his renamed company Incat Tasmania Pty. Ltd., based in Hobart.

The order for the FCB, destined for the Azerbaijan Oil Industry, was placed on 1st August 2013 and signed in Baku, Azerbaijan, by Incat Chairman Robert Clifford and representatives of Caspian Marine Services. Once materials were ordered and delivered the construction got underway later that month at Incat’s Hobart shipyard. The Incat Group is synonymous with fast ferries and evolved from local Hobart boat building companies, including the Sullivans Cove Ferry Company (SCFC) formed by Robert Clifford in 1972. SCFC built conventional steel mono-hull vessels, and operated small ferries across Hobart’s Derwent River. SCFC gained prominence transporting more than 9 million passengers in the two years following the 1975 Tasman Bridge collapse, the sole bridge link between the eastern and western shores of Hobart. After the bridge re-opened, International Catamarans Pty. Ltd. specialised in the construction of fast ferries. Experience gained as both manufacturer and operator provided insight into the requirements of passengers and ferry operators. After extensive research the company commenced specialisation in aluminium construction.

In 1983 the Wave Piercing design was conceived, the 8.7 metre prototype craft Little Devil (013) first undergoing trials in 1984. The results encouraged International Catamarans to proceed with a 28 metre Wave Piercing Catamaran, Spirit of Victoria (016), which entered commercial operation in mid 1985. The Tassie Devil 2001 (017) was launched in December 1986 and the current range of Wave Piercing Catamarans still reflects the characteristics of these early craft. On 20th May 1987 a contract was signed for the construction of a 51 metre Wave Piercing Catamaran for Sealink British Ferries, but agreement could not be reached on the commercial protection desired and the contract was not ratified by the board of Sea Containers.

A contract was finally signed with Sea Containers on 16th September 1988 for a 66 metre car-carrying passenger catamaran. This was subsequently amended to 72 metres and again to 74 metres as a result of further tank testing. The vessel was launched as the Christopher Columbus (Incat Hull 025) on 28th January 1990 and renamed Hoverspeed Great Britain shortly afterwards.The rest is history as the 74m Seacats developed into a global range of craft that has grown to versions up to 112 metres in length. Other examples have also been built for the U.S. Military, a sector opened up by the 86m HMAS Jervis Bay when chartered to the Royal Australian Navy. (Now the Condor Rapide). By 16th September 2013 construction of the new FCB was well under way and in early September 2014 Hull 074 as she was known took to the water.

Sea trials commenced on 13th September and two days later the 70 metre Fast Crew Boat was christened Muslim Magomayev during a ceremony at the Incat shipyard. Eight Incat Crowther designed crew boats already operate in the Caspian Sea but this is the first vessel that Incat Tasmania has purpose built for the Oil and Gas industry. Caspian Marine Services executives and 12 Azerbaijan crew witnessed 10 year old Hilary Clifford, grand daughter of Incat Chairman, Robert Clifford, cutting the ribbon to release the champagne. So, what’s in a name? Muslim Mahammad oglu Magomayev was born on 17th August 1942 and died on 25th October 2008. This iconic Soviet and Azerbaijani baritone operatic and pop singer of the 1960s and 1970s was dubbed the King of Songs and the Soviet Sinatra.

Walking on Water

The 70 metre long and 2 metre draught Muslim Magomayev has a narrower than normal beam for an Incat of 16 metres to permit her intended transit of the Volga-Don Canal in southern Russia to access the world’s largest landlocked waterway. The Caspian Sea is 640 miles long, has a surface area of 371,000 km2 and is in an endorheic basin (has no outflows) and has shores in Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan. Caspian Marine Services will employ the Muslim Magomayev to ferry crew and equipment to the oil rigs of the burgeoning Azerbaijani industry. The Caspian Sea is estimated to have reserves of 48 billion barrels and supplies about 3.4 per cent of the world’s oil market.

The 1,439gt vessel’s operation includes fast crew transfer for 150 offshore workers to multiple offshore installations. The hull design is optimized for high speed transits with a maximized operability envelope and low incidences of sea sickness. This is achieved by Incat Crowther’s advanced semi-SWATH (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull) hull form, combined with a resiliently mounted main cabin and machinery system, extensive vibration isolation and active ride control system. The hull form was validated through extensive tank testing and is designed to operate comfortably in sea conditions of 40 knot wind and seas of 3m significant wave height. The forward mounted accommodation superstructure consists of three decks. The lower deck has seating for 92 passengers plus two six-seater VIP lounges (port and starboard) plus utility/services rooms, sick bay, luggage room, workshop (A60) and vending machines. Deck 2 offers seating for 48 passengers in the aft section, seven 2-berth and two single berth crew cabins plus a centrally located mess room and galley. All crew cabins offer excellent crew comfort and are ILO-compliant.

The top deck is the wheelhouse with control positions located fore, aft, port and starboard for navigation and Walk 2 Work/cargo handling duties. Although not shown in the sea trials images the FCB can operate an Ampelmann walk-to-work stabilised access platform, providing a level podium and gangway to access offshore platforms. The access system compensates for the vessel’s motion by using hydraulic cylinders with a motion compensating control system. The vessel holds station using a Kongsberg K-pos DP-21 dynamic positioning system (DNV DYNPOS-AUTR) and crew transfers are performed with a 98.5% uptime in prevailing conditions. When installed the Walk 2 Work gangway is accessed from the aft of Deck 2. The 3.60m x 7.20m heave compensating platform is 6.6m above deck level when in operation and rests on the four 2m long stroke cylinders that control its position. The telescopic gangway can swing approximately 20 degrees to port and to starboard and extends to a maximum of 25 metres. The usual stowed length is 15.50 metres.

The dynamic positioning (DP) capability of the craft is used to its fullest extent when undertaking walk to work transfers via the aforementioned control stations in the wheelhouse. Ampelmann Operations is a high-tech offshore personnel transfer company based in The Netherlands and founded in 2008 as a spin-off of the Delft University of Technology. The Muslim Magomayev is the first catamaran to utilize this system and the first to have the stabilized access platform structure and supporting systems fully integrated into the design. For redundancy a crane lifted personnel transfer system is also provided for up to 2 groups of 9 offshore workers. The crane in question is a Palfinger PK4500M Knuckle Boom Crane with a 4.1t safe working load and a maximum outreach of 12.7 metres. Deck cargo is also handled by this equipment.

The vast 410m² stern deck offers 275 m² of cargo area when equipped with the walk to work system. This capacity allows the vessel to complete fast transfers for up to 130 tons of deck cargo (known as Hot Shot cargo) to a range of 400 nautical miles at speeds up to 35 knots. The deck load is 2.0 tonnes per square metre. The FCB is powered by a quartet of MTU 16V4000 M73L diesel engines that drive four 900mm Hamilton HT-900 Waterjets via ZF 9050NR2H gearboxes. Hamilton Jet waterjets work particularly well in DP capable vessels, where the powerful 360 degree thrust forces generated by the jet’s split duct reverse deflector at any vessel speed effectively act as an azimuth thruster. The effect of the waterjet manoeuvring thrust is further enhanced with the wide spacing of the jet units in a catamaran configuration (two jets per hull) which provides even better control of the vessel’s stern and can even assist with sideways movement of the bow. Dynamic positioning manoeuvrability is further enhanced by four retractable 300hp Thrustmaster azimuth bow thrusters. When deployed the draught is reduced from 3.15m to 2m. The service speed is 30 knots with a maximum speed of 38 knots. Ride control is governed by active TFoils, interceptors and yaw stabilizers.

The $40 million Incat 074 was delivered in early October upon completion of sea trials and then embarked upon a 40 day voyage to the Caspian Sea. On 31st October the vessel was shown as having travelled as far as Istanbul. On reaching her destination the Muslim Magomayev began providing crew transfer and cargo services to platforms in such fields as Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG), the largest oil field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea and Shah Deniz (a large offshore gas and condensate field). The oil and gas produced from these fields is transported by tanker for processing in Baku, and then transported via pipeline through Georgia and Turkey to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan or the Georgian port of Supsa in the Black Sea. Incat hopes that this ground breaking vessel will attract sufficient interest to build further identical or larger examples.

Special thanks must go to Judy Benson of Incat Tasmania for the supply of information, images and diagrams.

Technical Specifications