Future of ships

Didn’t SEACOR build some fast cat euro style crewboats? How did that work out for them? I haven’t heard about anyone else building them.

They all work overseas where they are used as crew boats as opposed to fast supply boats with out mud tanks. In markets where helicopters are of dubious reliability they are a good solution for passenger transport.

There are big differences between the SEACORE vessels and the WAVECRAFT.
Here is an article about and brief specs for the latest SEACORE vessels:


These are constructed from Aluminum as conventional Catamarans and with a fairly large cargo deck.
They require high powered engines to obtain a service speed of 40 kts. (Looking at Marine Traffic they appears to operate in Cabinda and Saudi at much lower speed though ( max.16 and 25 kts. respectively)

The WAVECRAFT is an air cushion Catamaran Surface Effect Ship (SES) constructed from all composite materials and fitted with motion control system to improve comfort in rough weather and reduce seasickness.
The composite sandwich materials makes for low structural weight, which give several benefits, including: high speed, high payload fraction, reduced displacement, lower power requirements, and up to 20-30% lowered fuel consumption than aluminum vessels, resulting in lower emissions.

Here is a presentation of the Voyager 32 WAVECRAFT for offshore operations:
https://www.wavecraft.no/uncategorized/launching-new-wavecraft-voyager-series-the-seaborne-helicopter/

A video showing the WAVECRAFT in operation in the North Sea and animation of the motion control system:

The Pacific Kestrel is active in the Persian Gulf, regularly at 35 - 40 knots

OK. more seriously; If the Operators on board should have to take control, I assume the WiFi system will be strictly internal, with limited reach and on a different frequency from any commercially available WiFi for your house. Such system are alrady widely used to operate cranes on ships etc.

Better think carefully about that Wi-Fi thing:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/severe-flaw-in-wpa2-protocol-leaves-wi-fi-traffic-open-to-eavesdropping/?comments=1

Packet insertion is possible. That yacht with the babes on the deck may not be what it seems :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Earl

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Ultimately, just about any type of network is hackable.

The Chinese have been busy though.

Omg, I nearly pissed myself laughing at this one… That method may work in the North Sea, but I don’t see that being accepted by “The Gods” …sorry, company men, in the GoM. That and unless things have changed during this downturn, it’s pretty much one rig/platform per boat on a voyage. Think I’ve got some pics of a single connex box lashed in the middle of my deck for an example of this mentality.

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By and large yes, but I’ve seen a few oil occasions fast boat runs serving platforms and drilling vessels in the same field or two fields (but same oil company client) when they are near each other. Not often, but I’ve seen it. And while the work boats would normally be assigned as you noted, occasionally with the same client there would be fuel or deck cargo for one vessel on the workboat that’s normally designated. I don’t think that ever happened with the drilling fluid bulk product.

One of the ships a decent distance out I did temp work on back in June had on average three vessels on location. I think that was a combination of the day rates and transit times involved. It was interesting to see, coming on watch and four boats are all on standby.

Ah yes… though I did work a rig for an oil major that will remain nameless, where the company man straight up said, “I like to wake up and get my coffee and look out and see boats out there standing by for me to use.” We had 4 boats working that rig… and spent probably 90% of the offshore time of the hitch sitting on standby patterns waiting on them to do something with us. No cargo… no nothing, but the guy didn’t want to send us back to the dock until he needed something from the dock.

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And then he probably complained that it took too long to get it out there?

A few times I saw this as making sense, but only a few. One boat had the deck cargo offloaded yet, but we were not ready to take on the mud. We were on a semi with a much lower “payload” limit and limited deck space. Another boat would bring deck cargo out for us and we would take it from that boat and put it on the other one so we could keep the boat with the mud out there at the ready. But then we could send the other boat back in…

But yeah, many times it just does not make sense.

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DING DING DING!!! We have a winner. Yup.

I get the “offshore storage” for items that might be needed quickly that you don’t have room for, and using a boat as an “external mud pit.” But empty boats just because you “like seeing them out there waiting on you” kind of explains the ridiculous amounts of money that got thrown around when things were good.

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Maybe this is an example of our American inefficiency and incompetence Norway has evolved beyond. (Yes, that was sarcasm.) Once those autonomous ships are in service there won’t be any crews to intimidate. The boats will be run by bean counters ashore and those bastards are real mean.

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I don’t think it is very good sarcasm. What I wrote and quoted in post #575 is a reality.
This is how Statoil and the other Oilcos in Norway and the UK are operating their logistics to their rigs and offshore operations.

Last year I visited Statoil’s Logistics Ops room at Sandsli outside Bergen and I must say, having just arrived from where things are largely run the “good old way”, it was a bit of a cultural shock.
Every helicopter, boat and rig in operation for Statoil in Norway was displayed on their big screen with all the normal info (Course, speed etc) but if they wanted more, like in an emergency, they could call up full specs, crew list etc. by a click of a mouse.

Here is a video from the centre:

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Back in the late '90s Trico built a cat crew boat that was powered by two jet turbine engines, Stillwater River, worked out of Macae for Petrobras, last time I saw it was 07 or so, in a Morgan City boneyard, decaying.

I remember one of my early awaking to the Offshore reality, back in the mid-1970’s
I was waiting for a rig move on a rig in the Java Sea, when I overheard the Companyman talking to a boat arriving from base. It went something like this:
“When you get here, just come in close so I can have a look at what you have on your deck, in case there is something I want”.

I thought that a bit silly, so I asked the Barge Master if they didn’t get a manifest or something before the boats arrived in the field?; “Yes, but he doesn’t like to read them”.
I could fill pages with anecdotes from later experiences of the kind, all over the world.

4-5 year ago I was engaged to look at the logistic problems for an Oilco in Malaysia. I found that they were having a lot of wastage from boats running half empty, or returning with part of the cargo still onboard, as well as a spending a lot of time idling in the field, waiting for the rigs and platforms to call them alongside.
Another problem was that they had a large number of small and inefficient AHTS on hire, mainly used to make cargo runs and assisting on rig and barge moves.

It was quite common to have 3-4 boats waiting for days at the end if a rig move, two with empty deck to assist the rig on approach and one or two with deck load (Spud materials).
Usually the boat with empty decks would either wait for days before delivering their bulk and liquid load, or they would return to base with it still on board, because there where urgent need for some material or another

I proposed to charter two large modern PSVs to run regular supply runs, leaving base on fixed days of the week, known to all suppliers and logistics coordinators and the people offshore.
On arrival in the fields (3) a semi-flexible turnaround route to be followed, but not left to the whims of anybody, (OIMs, Companymen, or others) If they hadn’t manage to deliver and take backload by the time they had to return to base, the boat would leave with whatever they had on board. My estimate was that it wouldn’t take long for both suppliers and receivers to learn to plan a bit ahead.

I had a big problem to explain to the Logistics Manager that a small and inefficient boat wasn’t cheaper then a big and efficient one, even though they burnt less fuel (at full speed) and was on lower dayrate. Especially so if you could put half the charter fleet off-hire due to better planning and efficiency.

Is that how they are doing it now?? NO WAY!!
It stranded on the different departments; Drilling, Operation and Construction, not being able to cooperate, each running separate boats and separate show.
The other thing was that less boats would mean less kickback to certain people in the Logistics department.

Did it bother me that they didn’t listen to my advise? Not at all. I got paid handsomely for the study and lost no sleep over their waste of money. (Name of Company shall remain with me)

Oh, that never ended… the idiots still can’t read a manifest in 2017. I do love it when everything is in connex boxes and I get to say, “You can look all you want, but if I can help you out at all, all the boxes are 10x10 and gray. Still need me to pull in for you to look at them?”

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Back to subject.
A problem many here will agree with, but not too many is likely to face for many years yet:
http://shipmanagementinternational.com/cork-command-seminar-looks-to-future-of-shipping-industry/

Another article about both the peril and inevitability of autonomous ships in Splash 24/7 today:

Will there be autonomous, electric powered 50000 TEU Container ships by 2050??:


Let’s hope that the prediction of size at least is wrong.
Electric powered, as in electric motors powered by hydrogen fuel cells, and autonomous I think is inevitable, though.