Rolls-Royce nabs safety orders for anchor handling vessels

Offshore staff

LONDON -- Rolls-Royce has signed contracts covering upgrade of deck operations equipment for four anchor handling vessels. The value of the contracts is about £50 million ($99 million). Two of the contracts are with Karmsund for Ezra, Singapore, and two with Aker Yards for K-Line Japan.

"Rolls-Royce has considered steering all operations on deck by remote control and removing the crew completely, but we decided that the human being is the greatest asset we have on deck," says Ottar Antonsen, general manager sales, Rolls-Royce Deck Machinery Brattvaag. "Our focus is to get the crew into a safe zone and ease the physical and heavy work."

To assist deck work, which is often carried out in harsh weather, Rolls-Royce has developed a remote control system for ropes, wires, chains, and shackles. A new contribution to safer operations is the ability to read the tension in the line when the chain or wire is locked in the shark jaw. Previously this could only be measured at the winch.

The delivery consists of winches, stern roller, shark jaw, towing pins, centering systems, anchor handling cranes, pennant coiler, and spooling sheave.

05/01/2008