Cummins power for smaller US liftboats

The larger of the two has 91m lift legs, double the vessel’s length. The boat has a 3.9m moulded depth to its nearly flat bottom. Conventionally, there have been two approaches to liftboat designs. One is a scaled down version of jack up rigs, some of which are being built in the Far East. Suda designs are ‘true liftboats’ rather than scaled down versions of jack-ups. Optimising designs allows them to provide low coat stable work platforms.

Built to service oil industry production platforms, the 91m lift boat has about 950m² of working deck interrupted only by the two forward legs and a pair of cranes. A four level accommodation and navigation block shares the aft-end of the boat with the third leg. A heliport extends out from the stern. The arrangement with a compact accommodation block allows for a more efficient load distribution between the legs.

The Suda 300-L3 model lift boat is propelled by a pair of EPA Tier 2 Cummins KTA38-M engines each delivering 850bhp to nozzled-propellers. These engines are grid-cooled and used only for propulsion while the hull is in the waters. A bow-thruster assists in positioning the vessel. Two Cummins-powered 625kWe generators provide power for the hydraulic jacking engines, the cranes and general shipboard services. Two 250kw generators provide primary power and backup service for the ship service load. A 99kw generator provides emergency power. Unlike some earlier lift boats, these engines are air cooled with deck mounted radiators to negate the need for hoses being lowered to the sea for water cooling when the vessel is jacked.

When fully extended, the legs can lift the bottom of the boat about 81.4m off the sea bottom, with some variation depending on penetration of the foot pads in the sea bottom. When retracted for travel, the 7.4m² pads at the bottom of the legs, are retracted into pockets in the bottom of the hull. The money-making part of the liftboat legs is the amount of leg extension below the hull. This vessel will boast of the highest leg extension as a ratio of its total leg length. Thus, it will compete with vessels of this type with anywhere from up to 6.1m higher leg lengths.

The Suda 300-L3 model lift boat is currently under construction at Gulf Island Marine Fabricators in Houma, Louisiana. Delivery is scheduled for mid-2012.