Dockwise Vanguard

Career
Dockwise Vanguard without cargo in Maasmond, Rotterdam in 2014
Name:	Dockwise Vanguard
Owner:	Dockwise Shipping B.V.
Port of registry:	Willemstad, Netherlands^[1]
Ordered:	2 October 2011^[1]
Builder:	Hyundai Heavy Industries
Cost:	US$240 million^[2]
Yard number:	2511^[3]
Laid down:	22 December 2011^[1]
Launched:	7 October 2012^[4]
Christened:	30 November 2012^[3]
Completed:	2012
Acquired:	1 February 2013 ^[5]
Identification:	IMO number: 9618783 Call sign: PBDI^[1] MMSI number: 244656000^[6]
General characteristics
Type:	Heavy lift ship
Tonnage:	116,173 DWT
Length:	275 m (902 ft) 270 m (890 ft) b.p.^[7]
Beam:	79 m (259 ft)
Draught:	11 m (36 ft) (sailing) 31 m (102 ft) (submerged)
Installed power:	2 × Wärtsilä 12V38 2 × Wärtsilä 6L38 27,000 kW (combined)
Propulsion:	Two propellers Two retractable azimuth thrusters One bow thruster^[8]
Speed:	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) (unloaded) 11–13 knots (20–24 km/h; 13–15 mph) (loaded)^[9]
Crew:	40

Dockwise Vanguard is a semi-submersible heavy lift ship owned and operated by Dockwise B.V. The Vanguard is the largest vessel of its type ever built, and is able to carry cargoes up to 110,000 tonnes.^[10] The Vanguard was designed to move offshore oil and gas facilities, but can also carry other ships and act as an offshore dry dock facility.^[11]

As offshore oil and gas facilities have grown in size, Dockwise saw a market for a ship that could carry the largest floating oil rigs to their destinations,^[12] reducing time and costs of transportation and allowing rigs to be built economically in a shipyard. In conjunction with Finland based Deltamarin,^[2] they designed a ship called the Type-0 heavy lift vessel, later renamed Dockwise Vanguard following an in-house competition won by Gerry Sarlis and Anthony van Ginkel.^[13] In 2014 Dockwise started a feasibility study into a larger successor to the Vanguard.^[14]

Design

The Vanguard has a flat bow-less deck measuring 70 by 275 metres (230 by 902 ft), allowing cargo longer and wider than the deck. Her deck is 70% larger than the MV Blue Marlin, the second largest heavy lift ship.^[15] The bridge and living area superstructure is situated at the far starboard side, and the deck contains three movable buoyancy casings.^[13] The watertight deck allows water to flow over the deck without risking the ship.^[16]

The Vanguard is semi-submersible allowing her to lift ships or rigs out of the water, and to place them into water. When her ballast tanks are flooded, her deck lies up to 16 metres (52 ft) below the surface, allowing her to handle deep draught cargoes. Loads can then be floated above her, and her ballast tanks emptied allowing her to lift and transport cargoes up to 110,000 tonnes, 50% more than the Blue Marlin.^[15] She can also be loaded from a dock side, and large cargoes loaded by skidding them on tracks.^[15]

The Vanguard can accommodate a crew of 40,^[13] and on her maiden voyage will be captained by Oleg Maryasov.^[17]

Cargoes

The first cargo of the Vanguard was the Chevron Corporation's Jack/St. Malo oil platform from Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea to the Gulf of Mexico.^[5] At 53,000 tons, Jack/St. Malo is the biggest semi-submersible floating oil platform ever built, and was loaded in February 2013.^[12] The journey was expected to take just under two months.^[11] The Vanguard has orders for two more deliveries, the Goliat FPSO later in 2013, and the Aasta Hansteen spar platform in 2015, both being built by Hyundai Heavy Industries.^[2] At 193 m (633 ft) long, the Aasta Hansteen platform will be the largest floating spar platform produced.^[18]

The Vanguard is able to offer an offshore dry dock facility, allowing ships and floating oil rigs to be raised out of the water for inspection or maintenance without a break in production.^[11] This will save operators a huge amount of money compared with towing the rigs back to dock taking them out of service for months.^[9] In the summer of 2013, the Vanguard was used as dry dock for the Semisubmersible drilling platform Noble Paul Romano in the Grand Harbour of Valletta and just off the coast of Malta as there were not any local dry docks big enough for the rig.^[19]^[20]

Costa Concordia

Main article: Costa Concordia disaster

It has been suggested to use Vanguard to move Costa Concordia from Isola del Giglio to a salvage yard on the Italian mainland for "breaking".^[21] In October 2013 Costa Crociere announced a $30million option with Royal Boskalis Westminster to use the Vanguard;^[22] however the Concordia was instead refloated and towed to Genoa in July 2014.