Russian shipping company FEMCO signed a deal with Norwegian Shipbuilder Havyard on 18th November 2013 for the construction of a Havyard 843 ice, an icebreaking offshore vessel.

The vessel was designed by Havyard Design & Solutions in Fosnavaag, Norway and was built at Havyard Ship Technology`s shipyard at Leirvik in Sogn, Norway. The vessel became newbuild no.122 and was initially scheduled to be delivered in September 2015. FEMCO later took up the option for a further two examples of the Havyard 843 ice, newbuild nos. 128/129. The Havyard group was founded in 2000 when Per Sævik acquired the shipyard at Leirvik in Sogn, Norway from the Kværner group. Activity on the site actually dates back to 1928 with the first newbuilding, the Lotnesferja, being delivered in 1938. A modern shipyard was constructed in 1976 and this was purchased by Kleven and partners in 1979, becoming a member of the Kværner group in 1990. The shipyard quickly became renowned as a high quality builder of offshore and fishing vessels and a specialist in building offshore vessels with ice breaking capabilities. The facility assumed the identity of Havyard Leirvik in 2000. Five years later the ship design company Leine Maritime was acquired leading to the birth of Havyard DesignTM, adding considerable speed to the growth of the company. Furthermore, several new companies were founded or acquired and the range of products and services grew. A milestone in the company’s history was when the first Havyard designed vessel, a Havyard 842 anchor Handling Tug Supply vessel was delivered. another milestone was when Havyard’s NB 088, a Havyard 858 Diving Support vessel got the offshore Support Journal’s (OSJ) “offshore Support vessel of the Year award” in 2011. The expansion in product portfolio and market shares world-wide has continued the growth of the company, which now has 780 employees in Norway (680), Peru, Brazil, Poland, Croatia, Turkey and China.

Cool Customer

Russian shipping company FEMCO was established in 2004 by highly qualified and experienced personnel from the state-owned Far East Marine Company (FEMCO). Nowadays the FEMCO group is the only private company in Russia that is a professional marine operator specialising in the management of anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) and Dry Cargo vessels. The company offers a full range of offshore Support vessel Services, the transportation of general cargo, commercial/technical management of offshore support vessels, personnel transportation, towage and the provision of technical guidelines. Areas of operation include both arctic and tropical regions. FEMCO diversified into dry bulk shipping in 2011 with their first ice strength ship being delivered that year. The company’s multipurpose and ice breaking AHTS vessels also service the harsh Northern Sea route. A fleet of 11 AHTS vessels (including four with icebreaker capabilities) is operated plus one fast support vessel and two general purpose dry bulk ships. Under construction are two AHTS, two general cargo ships and two ice breaker AHTS, the sisters to yard no.122. When developing the Havyard 843 ICE design the company used its expertise in designing advanced offshore vessels and cooperated with research institutions and subcontractors. The pioneering work consisted of designing hull lines and a propulsion system that satisfy the stringent requirements for the icebreaker class and the requirements of the shipping company. The design had to be capable of breaking one metre of ice, while also having a huge pulling capacity for towing operations. To do this, propellers in nozzles were fitted to ensure sufficient bollard pull, which meant that the hull form had to deflect as much ice as possible away from the propellers. When developing the hull lines, Havyard co-operated closely with HSVA’s researchers in Hamburg, who assisted with calculations in connection with the development of the hull lines and with model testing the hull in ice. A fruitful collaboration with Rolls Royce Marine delivered the propulsion system.

Versatility on Ice

The all new vessel had the name Aleut bestowed upon her and the keel was laid on 6th May 2014.

Launch day came on 17th May 2015 followed by fitting out and sea trials. The Aleut is 86.70m long overall with a beam of 19.50m, a maximum draught of 7.75m and a hull depth to the main deck of 9.00m (11.75m to a Deck). The ship is designed and built to operate under extreme arctic conditions and, being an icebreaker, can break one-metre-thick ice at 3 knots as well as having the ability to ram into and break ice ridges with 8- metre-thick ice under water. A built in de-icing system by Tranberg AS allows her to withstand temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. The accommodation is allocated in the forward section of the bow and the forward mounted 3-tier superstructure, which includes the navigation bridge. There are four decks of accommodation that house the cabins for officers and crew, the galley, laundry, mess room, offices, day room, crew leisure facilities and the services. A GA diagram was not available for the ship so a precise description of the layout on board cannot be provided. The 4,841gt Aleut is powered by four main engines, two 4000kW Rolls Royce B32:40L8PCD units (engines 1 & 3) and two 3000kW, rolls Royce B32:40L6P units (engines 2 & 4). The engines drive a pair of 7,000kW Rolls Royce 144 nozzled propulsion units via two Siemens gvL1250 gearboxes, supplied by Rolls Royce. The propellers are 4,300mm diameter controllable pitch in stainless steel. Manoeuvrability is provided by two Rolls Royce CX high lift rudders driven by Rolls Royce rv1350‐3 steering gear. Due to the severe conditions in which the ship will be working for much of the time, redundancy of engines, systems etc. is vital. Besides the four engines the Aleut has two 596kW, Marelli Motori, MJBM355MB4 B34 generators, supplied by Norwegian Electric Systems, plus two 596kW, Scana Volda Di16075M auxiliary generators, supplied by Nogva Motorfabrikk generators. Two 3,000kva, Marelli Motori MJr630 LB6 B3 shaft generators supplied by Norwegian Electric are also installed plus one 335kW, Scania Di1262M emergency generator supplied by Nogva Motorfabrikk. Dynamic positioning is installed and 360 degree manoeuvrability is aided by twin 1,000kW, rolls Royce TT2200 DPN CP bow tunnel thrusters plus twin 1,000kW, rolls Royce TT2200 DPN CP stern tunnel thrusters. The thruster motors are four 1,000kW, Norwegian Electric Systems B5J 450 LB6 v1 units. During sea trials, the speed was measured at 16 knots and the bollard pull was just above 200 tonnes. The economic service speed is 12 knots. The open aft deck offers 600m2 of clear deck area for cargo. The deck strength is 10t/m2 and 1,200 tonnes of cargo can be conveyed. The Aleut can also carry 1400m3 of fuel oil, 800m3 of fresh water, 3,000m3 of ballast or drill water and 545m3 of brine/liquid mud. The Aleut also has a 260m3 capacity rig Chain Locker, four Cement Tanks with a total capacity of 215m3 and a 13m3 and a 12.6m3 capacity freezer/chiller. A total of 15/15m3 of foam/detergent is available plus an 825m3 tank for oil recovery duties. Each of the liquid cargo tanks have their own pump systems as follows: Fuel oil 2 x 200m3/hr 9 bar, Fresh Water 1 x 200 m3/hr 9 bar, Ballast/Drill Water 2 x 200m3/hr 9 bar, Liquid Mud/Brine 2 x 75m3/hr 24 bar, Bilge/Ballast 1 x 8m3/hr/1 х 100m3/h, Base oil 1 х 100m3/hr 9 bar and Bulk Cement/ Barite 2 x 50 tonnes/hour. The capacities for the sisterships, to be named Normann and Pomor, will vary slightly to the Aleut, they will accommodate 53 personnel plus the artist’s impression for the latter duo shows a knuckle boom crane on the cargo deck. For her size, the versatility of the Aleut is impressive but then this needs to be the case as she has been chartered by the Russian oil company Gazprom to service the Prirazlomnaya platform. The two icebreakers Havyard delivered in 2006 also service this field. in addition to being an advanced anchor-handling vessel with platform supply functions, the ship is equipped for firefighting (FiFi) duties consisting of two 1200 pumps, two monitors, two main ship’s fire pumps plus one emergency pump as per Class requirements. The deck equipment installed, including for anchor handling and towage duties, includes a Bratvaag double hydraulic anchor windlass with two drums, two 40mm Cable Lifters, two Stockless Bow anchors, two 40mm Q3 chains, twin 8t Brattvaag Capstans and two 10 tonne Brattvaag Tugger Winches. A 2,500mm long and 900mm diameter Brattvaag Double Drum Waterfall towing/anchor handling winch is provided with 76mm wire plus a Towing Drum of the same dimensions for 2,000m of 76mm wire. The line pull is 250 tonnes at first layer with a 400t static brake. other installations for these duties include two gypsies (1x 64mm and 1x 76mm), a 6,000mm long and 3,000mm diameter stern roller with a 400 tonne safe working load (SWL), a 40 tonne SWL electro hydraulic Shark Jaw, two 250 tonne SWL electro hydraulic towing pins plus a 10 tonne pull rope reel with capacity for 2,000m of 76mm wire. On the aft end of the superstructure are two electro hydraulic deck cranes with respective capacities of 10 tonne at 15m outreach and 2 tonne at 15m outreach.

Breaking Away

Upon completion the Aleut was taken from Sognefjord to the Skoltekaien in Bergen to be christened and handed over at 1330 on Saturday 28th November. The naming ceremony for a ship for a Russian shipping company is quite special. After the ship’s godmother Nadezhda Lyshko named the vessel, both the ship and the crew were blessed by a priest from the Russian Orthodox Church during a stylish ceremony with speeches and songs. After the naming ceremony, the guests were invited on board to take a closer look at the ship, and, in the evening, there was a celebration dinner at the Hotel Scandic Neptun. After her big day the Aleut sailed to Murmansk in Russia to take on stores, provisions and equipment before heading to the Prirazlomnoye field, which is situated between the Russian mainland and Novaya Zemlya. The Aleut is now hard at work, undertaking anchor handling, towing and standby operations for oil protection and rescue services.

Special thanks must go to Gunnar Larsen of Havyard for the supply of information and images. Photo Credit: UAVPic.com.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Keel Laid: 6th May 2014

Launched: 17th May 2015

Delivery: 1st December 2015

Shipyard: Havyard Ship Technology AS

Place of build: Leirvik, Sogn, Norway

Yard No: 122

Registered Owner: Management v Shipping Co. Ltd, Care of FEMCO-Management Ltd (OOO ‘FEMKO- Menedzhment’), ul Kurilskaya 38, Yuzhno- Sakhalinsk, Sakhalinskaya oblast, 693000, Russia.

Operator: FEMCO West Ltd, ul Kurilskaya 38, Yuzhno- Sakhalinsk, Sakhalinskaya oblast, 693000, Russia.

Manager: FEMCO Management Ltd, ul Kurilskaya 38, Yuzhno- Sakhalinsk, Sakhalinskaya oblast, 693000, Russia.

IMO: 9720720

Flag: Russia

Port of Registry: TBC

Classification: DnV + 1A1 ‐E0 ‐OFFSHORE SERVICE VESSEL+ – AHTS ‐ SF ‐ CLEAN DESIGN NAUT‐OSV(A) ‐ DYNPOS AUTR ‐ DK+ ‐ COMF‐V(3) ‐ HL(2.8) ‐ OILREC ‐ ICEBREAKER ‐ FIFI 1 ‐ ICE10 ‐ WIN TERIZED COLD(‐30) ‐ DAT(‐30) Comply with: UKOOA Rescue B for 200 survivors

Ship Type: AHTS/Icebreaker

Design: Havyard 843 ice

Length Overall: 86.70 metres

Length (BP): 76.80 metres

Breadth: 19.50 metres

Draught (Max): 7.75 metres

Freeboard: 1.25 metres (minimum)

Hull Depth to Main Deck: 9.00 metres

Hull Depth to A Deck: 11.75 metres

Gross Tonnage: 4,841

Net Tonnage: 1,587

Deadweight: 2,600

Lightship: 5,150

Main Engines 1/3: 2 x 4000kW, Rolls Royce B32:40L8PCD

Main Engines 2/4: 2 x 3000kW, Rolls Royce B32:40L6P

Propulsion Units: 2x 7000kW Rolls Royce 144

Propellers: 2x CPP 4300mm Stainless steel

Gearboxes: 2x Siemens gvL1250, supplied by Rolls Royce

Auxiliary Generators: 2 x 596kW, Scana Volda Di16075M, supplied by Nogva Motorfabrikk

Generators: 2 x 596kW, Marelli Motori, MJBM355MB4 B34, supplied by Norwegian Electric Systems

Emergency Generator: 1 x 335kW, Scania Di12 62M, supplied by Nogva Motorfabrikk

Shaft Generators: 2 x 3000kva, Marelli Motori, MJr630 LB6 B3, supplied by Norwegian Electric Systems

Bow Tunnel Thrusters: 2x 1000kW, Rolls Royce TT2200 DPN CP

Stern Tunnel Thrusters: 2x 1000kW, Rolls Royce TT2200 DPN CP

Thruster Motors: 4 x 1000kW, Norwegian Electric Systems B5J 450 LB6 v1

Service Speed: 16 knots

Bollard Pull: 201 tonnes (towing)

Crew Accommodation: 34 persons

Anchor-handling winch: 250 tonnes

CARGO DECK

Max. Deck Load: 10t/m²

Free Deck Area: 600m² approx

Cargo Capacity: 1,200 tonnes