First of GPA-654 Supply Vessel Delivered by Bollinger

Monday, August 20, 2007

The first of 10 new Rigdon GPA-654 platform supply vessels, appropriately named First and Ten, has been delivered from Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana. Another 22 of the vessels of the same 190-foot design are on order by Bourbon Offshore from a Chinese yard. As with earlier Guido Perla-designed supply vessels, the diesel-electric propulsion power in these vessels is being supplied by Cummins Mid-South LLC of Kenner Louisiana. For these vessels the diesel electric package consist of two Cummins KTA-50DM1-powered1235 KW and one Cummins KTA-19DM1-powered 425 KW main propulsion generators and one 6BTA5.9G-85 KW SOLAS emergency standby generator. The First and Ten is a 190- by 46- by18-foot PSV with two Azimuthing vertical electric drives and one fixed electric L-Drive aft as well as two large tunnel thrusters forward. The redundancy of propulsion systems on these vessels earns them DPII status. They are fully diesel electric with Silicon Controlled Rectified (SCR) DC drives. A unique feature of the design has the engine room at the first deck level . Not only does this allow for more bulk storage capability under the main deck but it also allows for ease of maintenance and repair by it's key vendors like Cummins and AVK . The engines are connected to the vessel management system by means of a Mod Bus arrangement supplied by Cummins Mid-South using Auto Maskin panels. They tier into a Techsol vessel management system and a Frank L. Bier DP system. Electric Power Design Inc. of Houston Texas and Yangzhoa China provided the entire vessel power management system including all motor control centers, SCR system and the actual drive motors themselves. Karl Senner Inc. also out of Kenner, La. supplied the Steer Prop steerable propeller system. All vendors will remain constant on all 32 vessels to be constructed both in the US and China. The vessels were designed under the guidance of Guido Perla and Associates. The Rigdon 4000 PSVs have capacity for up to 4,000 barrels of liquid mud in an independent and fully segregated, self-cleaning oval tank system. The design allows them to deliver 100% of their mud cargo to an offshore rig while reducing the client?s expense of tank cleaning.