Sinopacific starts rock installation vessel construction

To build the vessel for Van Oord, Zhejiang Shipyard has established an effective communication and dialogue mechanism with a number of leading suppliers, including manufacturers of the power system Bakker Sliedrecht, main propulsion provider Schottel and engine provider, MAK. Zhejiang Shipyard says, by combining the know-how and experience of both internal and external professionals, it’s successfully dealt with a number of design challenges.

“There is still a long way to go for Chinese shipbuilders to establish equal dialogue and effective communication with the senior ‘players’ in this field,” said Simon Liang, Chairman and CEO of Sinopacific.

“Therefore, to narrow this gap, Sinopacific has been constantly intensifying its EPCC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning) capability to be able to offer sophisticated offshore solutions to customers in the near future,” he added.

The vessel will use a 3-level Dynamic Positioning System (DP3). As the highest dynamic positioning system as defined by IMO, DP3 is said to offer the highest levels of precision and anti-risk capability and features an integrated control system. Sinopacific says the vessel will not only set high standards in terms of personnel safety and environmental protection in marine operations, but avoid any manual handling of equipment due to a highly mechanised configuration. The vessel will also comply with the COMF NOISE 1 and COMF VIB 1 classification.

In addition, the company is extending its product range to include specialised offshore vessels and has recently launched an in-house design for an offshore construction vessel (OCV), which is destined for “diversified markets” like Russia, Mexico and Singapore.