Bourbon Front Platform Supply Vessel

The naming ceremony for Bourbon Front was held in August 2011 in Ningbo, China. Image courtesy of the Ulstein Group 2011.

Bourbon Front is the first in a series of four next-generation PSVs being built by the Chinese shipyard. Image courtesy of Bourbon.

PSV Bourbon Front being transferred to the Zhejiang shipyard for completion. Image courtesy of Bourbon.

The vessel is of the PX105 design series that was developed by Ulstein Design. Image courtesy of Bourbon.

The vessel was built by Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group's Zhejiang shipyard. Image courtesy of Bourbon.

Bourbon Front is a platform supply vessel (PSV) built by Zhejiang Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group, for Bourbon Offshore Norway. She is the first ship in a series of four next-generation PSVs being built by the Chinese shipyard. Bourbon Clear, Bourbon Calm and Bourbon Rainbow are the other three vessels in the series.

Bourbon Front was launched in September 2009 in Ningbo, China, and was delivered in September 2011. The vessel is built, fitted out and certified in accordance with the IMO Class-Two dynamic positioning system (DPS).

It also meets Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Clean Design class notation requirements.

Design and features of Bourbon Front

Bourbon Front was designed by Ulstein Design in cooperation with Bourbon Offshore Norway. The vessel is of ULSTEIN PX105 design series. The PX105 design was developed to fulfil the future requirements of the offshore industry.

PX105 ships are provided with large and reliable platforms to carry voluminous and general cargoes to offshore facilities.

The vessel features Ulstein’s X-BOW hull lines with inverted bow. This design feature allows the vessel to achieve higher transit speed in all weather conditions and also offers enhanced fuel economics. The vessel’s inverted bow shape allows her to reduce pitching, interior noise and vibrations associated with conventional bow flare.

Another important feature of the vessel is that she uses multi application cargo solution (MACS) for maximum cargo flexibility. MACS was developed by Per Gjerdrum (PG) in association with Bourbon Offshore, Ulstein Design and FlowSafe. It allows the use of combination tanks for dissimilar cargoes such as drill cuttings, dry bulk, synthetic fluids, fuel oils and oil recovery.

The exhaust gas pipes are positioned overboard at ship-side above the waterline to provide a near 360° field of vision.

Loading / discharging pumps include two fresh water cargo pumps, two ballast pumps, six low flashpoint liquid (LFL) tanks, six product tanks and eight MACS cargo pumps. There are two agitators for each of the two aft product tanks and one agitator for each MACS tank.

Bourbon Front is equipped with a Mecmar wet exhaust system and oil purification plants. Inert gas system is provided for purging and padding of LFL pipes and tanks with caissons and MACS tanks for dry bulk.

The vessel’s overall length is 88.9m and the length between perpendiculars is 82m. Moulded breadth and depth to main deck are 19m and 8m respectively. Maximum draught is 6.6m and design draught is 6m.

Accommodation facilities onboard the platform supply vessel

A total of 25 persons can be accommodated onboard the vessel. All cabins and common rooms are equipped with TV and sound systems. The conference room is equipped with overhead and internet connection facilities. A hospital with a ShipMed system is also provided.

The cabin combination is comprised of two officer cabins, 13 one-bed cabins and five two-bed cabins.

Vessel capacities

The deadweight of the vessel is 4,450t. The gross tonnage and net tonnage are 3,950t and 1,185t respectively.

Bourbon Front has a deck area of 1,017m², with a deck load capacity of 2,800t and strength of 10t/m2. Trial speed of the vessel is 15.5kt.

Propulsion system of the Bourbon Front PSV

Bourbon Front is equipped with diesel-electric power and propulsion plant.

There are four main generator sets, each capable of producing 1,700kW at 1,800rpm. A 425kW harbour generator set and a 160kW emergency generator set are also available.

The vessel is fitted with two fixed pitch, main azimuth thrusters with 360° rotation angle. Each of these can produce approximately 2,500kW at 800rpm. The vessel also has two electric propulsion motors with frequency converters.

Two side thrusters, including a supersilent tunnel thruster and retractable azimuth thruster, are fitted forward. A second supersilent thruster can be mounted forward optionally.

Equipment on the Norwegian PSV

The vessel is fitted with one working class crane with telescopic boom. Its safe working load (SWL) at 17m outreach is 2t.

There are two hydraulic tugger winches, one each on port and starboard sides. The vessel is also erected with a double hydraulic combined windlass / mooring winch. Twelve deck cargo lashing winches are available in cargo rail.