I’m working on a school project about the OSV industry in the Gulf of Mexico (interesting timing, I know…) and would tremendously appreciate it if anyone could either or both of these questions. I know that this sort of thing isn’t what this forum is for, so I do apologize – I just couldn’t find the answers to these questions anywhere else.
If a average sized OSV (200-300 ft?) is on a job where it is making trips back and forth between a rig and a port, how long does it typically take to reload at the port? By this I mean the total time to enter the port, load up the deck cargo and mud/cement/etc, and head back out. I’m sure this varies widely based on the vessel size, amount of cargo, and port traffic, but I’m just wondering if it’s a matter of hours or days.
How many mariners would be needed on a 300-320 foot OSV vs. a 220-240 footer?
In perfect situations, (yes, although rare, they did happen) full offload and backload, I had it done on occasion in 12 hours. That didn’t include tank cleaning to switch mud out, and wasn’t a full reload on the dry bulk tanks (again, unless things lined up absolutely perfectly). My boat had a dedicated dock for us and one other though, so not much waiting on deck cargo. I also had partial load outs that had us back underway in under four hours for hot shot loads.
13 people on my old 240’ OSV that I was on. Couldn’t tell you how many are on the new big boys, but if I had to guess, probably about the same.
On my 305ft supply boat, we normally have a crew size of around 15. Usually no less but occasionally a couple more.
Port time for load outs widely vary based of several factors. Been anywhere between 18 hours to two weeks. Depends on availability of cargo, tank cleaning, other boats servicing the same rig, vendors, etc.
Turn around time, assuming no waiting on berths or other time sucks like tank cleaning, for a mud size OSV (~280’) is roughly 24-36 hours. That’s to offload a full deck load that came in from a rig, load mud, load dry bulk, then load outbound deck cargo. (The time varies based on how much mud and/or dry bulk one must load.) Does it ever happen that fast? Rarely…
It doesn’t take any more crew to run a 312’ OSV than to run a 240’ OSV.
1). I agree with an average of 24-36 hours but as said, it can vary greatly based on the required activities in port and other traffic.
2). I’m currently on a 272’ and we have 14 onboard. When on a 230’ it was the same. This is more than the USCG Certificate of Inspection requires but is increased due to customer requirements.
[QUOTE=captaint76;174663]2). I’m currently on a 272’ and we have 14 onboard. When on a 230’ it was the same. This is more than the USCG Certificate of Inspection requires but is increased due to customer requirements.[/QUOTE]
I can’t speak for other companies that might have different contracts but every Chouest OSV with a given client had the same crew count.
Furthermore, I can’t see any practical reason why a 320’ OSV would require more crew than a 240’ OSV. With the thrusters on those boats the operator can hold it dockside indefinitely so one deckhand could moor/unmoor the vessel if they had to. They could be operated with a six man crew, though it would suck ass.