The scope of work this time around was to remove the 4 spud cans to that the Jack-Up could operate in a different seabed for its next contract. This operation had never been carried out before on this tyep of vessel.
- Services: Conversion
- Client: NSP
- Project: Spud Cans Removal
- Date Commenced: March 2014
- Duration: 2 weeks
To avoid a lengthy (circa 60 day) offshore operation using barges, a bespoke 4.5m deep docking bed was constructed using H&W standard 2×2 concrete blocks and 500mm of wood packing. The vessel was then floated in and dry-docked in the Belfast Dock. The spud cans were lowered onto a prefabricated jig and then disconnected from the jacking legs.
While in dock further work carried out included: clearing sea-fastening off the main deck; marking out winches and bollards on deck; removal and touch-up of paintwork; removal of insulation; and, pedestal crane re-certification.
After the Friedrich Ernestine was undocked the spud cans, each weighing 150t, were then recovered from the dock and subsequently loaded and sea-fastened onto a transport vessel for shipping to the customer’s storage port.
The docking of the Friedrich Ernestine was the 10th such visit by a jack-up vessel to the Harland and Wolff shipyard in the past 3 years, highlighting the company’s versatility, capacity and expertise in this market.
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