The UT 704 story

[ombugge]

@Gryhpe

The 704s were provided with hydraulic pins which rose out of the deck and trapped the wire, almost incidently making the operation 100% safer.

@ombugge

The idea was actually from Purse Seiners, where a smaller version of the Ulstein Shark Jaws and Triplex Stoppers were used when connecting the seine wire.

This was just one of the many improvements that came about because the Owners, builders, designers and users of the boats and equipment were from the same small places along the Norwegian coast.
They knew each other, had gone to school together. played football together and lived in similar houses in the same villages. (No “Class difference”)

BTW; UT 704 wasn’t the first Norwegian owned or built OSVs.
This was the first Norwegian flag OSV:

The first Norwegian supply ship, Sea Pearl (800 tdw, 3800 bhp), from Mangone Shipbuilding in 1971 to Bugge Supply Ships, Tønsberg

The first one built in Norway was this one:

RIG CHIEF (965 tdw/2310 bhk, var blant de første norskbygde, levert fra Gerh Voldnes, Fosnavåg, i 1974 til Sandøy Supply i Brattvåg. NSS-Jenssensamlingen

By 1973 there were 25 Norwegian OSVs, mostly US built.

As mentioned, many of the first Norwegian supply ships of American design and standard. Mangone Shipbuilding Co in Houston came to deliver ten units to Norway in the years 1971-1975. Besides Bugge’s two, there were six for Wilhelmsen Offshore Services and two for Fred Olsen & Co, the latter’s SEA BRUSE and SEA BURE were powerful plugs of 6300 bhp.

Source: https://www.skipet.no/maritimt/offshore/de-forste-forsyningsskip

The crews on the early Norwegian OSVs didn’t feel any inhabitation from telling the designers, builders and equipment suppliers “a thing or two” about what was wrong and how it could be improved.

Sigmund Borgundvåg, the designer of the UT 704, who had been on fishing boats in his young days, both understood and appreciated the input and incorporated it in the next boat and future designs.