This is not the first time that MARINTEK has been involved in testing ships that win this competition. No fewer than 16 of the last 18 vessels that have been named 'Ship of the Year' have been tested at Tyholt in Trondheim.
"A very large number of offshore vessels have won this competition in recent years. But we have also been involved in 'Ship of the Year' with tankers, ferries, coastguard vessels, cruise ships and seismic vessels," says senior research scientist Hans Jørgen Rambech of MARINTEK.
This year's winner is called Skandi Africa, and it is an offshore construction vessel owned by DOF and designed by VARD. The vessel was designed for offshore installation operations under harsh weather conditions. The giant red vessel is no less than 160.9 m l.o.a., with a beam of 32 m, and it is capable of installing flexible pipelines for petroleum production at depths of as much as 3000 meters.
Advanced offshore construction
"Skandi Africa is one of the most advanced offshore construction vessels ever built. It is extremely large and expensive. Its largest crane can lift as much as 900 tonnes, which says something about the size of the vessel itself," says Rambech.
VARD is a market leader in offshore construction vessels, and all of the company's designs have been tested at MARINTEK.
"MARINTEK carried out a wide range of trials on Skandi Africa in 2013. First, we tested it in calm water in order to check its speed and performance and to optimise the hull design. The vessel was then tested in waves, to find out how it behaved in various wave heights and directions," says the senior scientist.
"How efficient is this vessel, in your opinion?"
"We realised at an early stage that the boat behaved very well under all the weather and operating conditions under which it was tested," says Rambech.
