Aker Wayfarer is an advanced multipurpose offshore construction vessel capable of undertaking subsea installation, floater installations, topside floatovers and removal operations.
Delivered in October 2010, she is a sister ship of Skandi Aker, the largest monohull subsea well intervention vessel ever built. The two ships are the first intervention vessels to be classed with IMO MODU (mobile offshore drilling unit) code, allowing them to carry oil onboard.
Aker Wayfarer is owned by offshore engineering and construction firm Aker Oilfield Solutions and is on charter with Wellstream. STX OSV, a subsidiary of STX Europe, built the vessel.
Design, features and dimensions of Aker Wayfarer
Aker Wayfarer is of STX OSCV 06L ship design series which was developed by STX Norway Offshore Design. The vessels of STX OSCV 06L series are designed and equipped for subsea operations with good sea-keeping and station-keeping abilities.
Aker Wayfarer is an environmentally-friendly vessel and meets DNV’s clean design requirements. The vessel, because of her low fuel consumption, has low exhaust emissions. The vessel’s sustainable features include optimised power management, exhaust catalysers and low emission diesel engines.
In order to minimise the impact of heeling moment, each side of the vessel is fitted with a tank. The anti-heeling system is further made stronger by employing three reversible propeller pumps, each of 1,500m3/h capacity. Two passive roll reduction tanks are provided to provide stability to the vessel during periodic roll movements induced by waves.
The gross tonnage of the vessel is 16,000t and the displacement at 8.5m draft is 22,820m3. She has an overall length of 156.9m. Length between perpendiculars is 137.7m.
The moulded breadth and depth to main deck are 27m and 12m respectively. Design draft to midship is 6.5m, while the maximum scantling draft to mid-ship is 8.5m.
Construction of Aker Wayfarer
Aker Oilfield Services entered into a contract with Aker Yards (now STX Europe) for the construction of the vessel in March 2007. The keel was laid in November 2008 and the vessel was launched August 2009.
The steel hull of the vessel was manufactured by STX RO Offshore in Tulcea, Romania. Outfitting and completion were carried out by STX OSV in Søviknes, Norway.
The vessel features a 7.2m x 7.2m moonpool. There is also a helicopter landing platform in the forward part of the ship. With a diameter of 21.8m and load capacity of 8.2mt, the helicopter deck can support operations of a single Sikorsky S-92 helicopter.
Accommodation
Aker Wayfarer has accommodation facilities for 140 persons in 41 double cabins, 29 single cabins, 25 officer class single cabins, two client class single cabins and two captain class single cabins. A hospital is available for the people onboard.
Cargo capacity and equipment
The vessel features a cargo deck measuring 2,210m2 in area, with a load carrying capacity of 10mt/m2. The free deck area excluding cranes is 1,850m2.
The vessel can store 2,300m³ of fuel oil, 1,890m³ of fresh water and 8,900m³ of ballast water.
The vessel is equipped with two heave compensated (AHC) cranes, one with a safe working load (SWL) of 400t and the other with an SWL of 50t. An electro-hydraulic knuckle boom crane with a load lifting capacity of 3t at 15m is also available.
Propulsion and manoeuvring
The vessel’s power plant is comprised of six MAN main engines and six Siemens generators. Total power generating capacity of the six main engines is 19,200kW. There is also an MTU engine with a Stamford emergency generator.
Main propulsion power is provided by a 4,000kW propeller with high lift rudder.
For smooth manoeuvring, Aker Wayfarer is equipped with six side thrusters. These include two tunnel thrusters, two retractable azimuth thrusters and two contra-rotating azimuth thrusters.
The vessel uses a IMO Dynamic Positioning (DP) Class-3 control system to automatically maintain her position and heading. Reference systems of the DP control system include two Seapath instruments, two differential global positioning systems (DGPS), HPR HiPaP 500 and Fanbeam. Four joystick panels are provided on the vessel’s bridge.
