Neil Patterson News

The first contract to be let in the £5.5 million project to rebuild the Maid of the Loch, Loch Lomond’s Paddle Steamer, was signed on Monday, February 22, 2016. The contract has been awarded to OSD-IMT Ltd., of Dundee, and is for marine consultancy services. OSD will provide the necessary naval architecture, engineering, structure, and outfitting expertise to produce all the required calculations, drawings and designs to ensure that the rebuild meets all regulatory requirements.

Offshore Ship Designers has sealed ten new design contracts for large diesel-electric Platform Supply Vessels for two major offshore operators building at three shipyards in Brazil, Japan and Spain. Swire Pacific Offshore Operations (Pte) Limited has ordered four IMT-997 Platform Supply Vessels to be built by Universal Shipbuilding Corporation in Japan and four sister vessels to be built at the EISA shipyard in Brazil. The 97 m LOA 5,000 dwt vessels will be classed with DP2 capability and have diesel-electric propulsion systems with azimuth propulsion units.

Anglo-Dutch company Offshore Ship Designers has launched a new offshore wind farm maintenance vessel concept which will improve uptime of deepwater wind turbines and reduce maintenance costs and carbon emissions while offering a solution to the logistics problem of carrying out simultaneous multiple wind turbine maintenance. The Sea-Wind WMV vessel design is for a mother ship which would remain on station in offshore deep-water wind farms providing a safe haven for multiple numbers of catamaran workboats to carry engineers to service the turbines.

Norway's KS North Sea Rescue AS has chosen an IMT 955-N design for a series of six Field Support Vessels to be built at the Yaroslavsky Shipbuilding Plant, Russia. The vessels are a modified version of the IMT Marine Consultants IMT 955 design of which nine are currently building at Astilleros Zamakona, Spain, for Vroon Offshore. The Russian-built vessels will be operated by Stavanger-based Simon Møkster Shipping AS. The deal to choose a UK design to build at a Russian yard was brokered by Norwegian brokers Fearnleys, and the deal includes all equipment, which will be supplied through Russian firm VMF Shipping. Neil Patterson, managing director of IMT Marine Consultants…

Offshore vessel designer, Offshore Ship Designers (OSD), says going green is no longer just an expensive option, and it is no longer just about containing noxious emissions and oil spills. A global focus on carbon dioxide emission reduction means that going green is both a challenge and a business opportunity for offshore service vessel (OSV) operators. Writing in its regular newsletter Design Waves, Neil Patterson, managing director of IMT Marine Consultants, part of OSD, says, “The public wants cuts in greenhouse gases, and has zero tolerance for marine pollution. Expect to see oil companies responding by going green across the board. There are already signs that oil companies will give preference to chartering ships which produce fewer carbon emissions.