Ten years ago, Bourbon became the first offshore support vessel operator to take on a radical new design developed by Ulstein of Norway.
The bull-nosed beast with its easy lined and fairly slim hull was known as the X-Bow design and the first of the class, Bourbon Orca, was delivered in 2006.
Its front end was then and remains curiously reminiscent of ancient vessel types such as Roman merchant ships and the Italian trabaccolo, of which a few examples remain extant.
In August 2006, Energy reported: “Norway has again demonstrated its ability to come up with a radical offshore support vessel design that could prove a major step forward, both operationally and in terms of safety.
“Bourbon Orca is definitely ‘out of the box’ and has gone straight from completion by Ulstein Group into service with Hydro for anchor handling services in the North Sea.
“What marks this ship out from the crowd are its massive bulging, backward sloping bows. Ulstein Group claims that the so-called X-Bow offers very significant advantages over accepted convention for offshore support vessels.
“Additionally, the vessel is fitted with an equally radical anchor handling ramp at the stern which is designed to make what is an inherently very dangerous operation much safer. Again, this has the potential to rewrite the book on OSV design.”
For its part, Bourbon said at the time: “Although the vessel is a whole new design with many technical innovations, we have been willing to be the first to try out whether these solutions will work.
“We want to get the crew away from dangerous operations that were previously done manually. These new solutions are a good contribution toward reducing risk to the ship’s crew.
“We do not believe we are running any particular risk, and take the view that the new equipment will probably function at least as well as previous solutions. During the charter period we’ll carefully evaluate how the Bourbon Orca functions and see whether this is a concept we should continue pursuing.”
Bourbon Orca, built to Ulstein’s AX104 design, is classed as an anchor handling tug/supply vessel. It was the first tangible result of a collaboration between the Norwegian arm of US group Bourbon Offshore, Ulstein Design and Norwegian company ODIM, a specialist in marine automated systems.
Basically, the X-Bow shape is said to improve the stability and handling characteristics of OSVs. This translates into a vessel that has shown itself to be both faster and quieter in poor weather, also more comfortable for its crew.
Typically, conventional OSVs are very lively in a big seaway and, with all accommodation forward, it means the crew are having to live in what amounts to a relentless express lift.
As for the anchor handling system, the Bourbon, Ulstein, ODIM collaboration, encouraged by Statoil, led to development of SAHS (safe anchor handling system) which eliminates any human presence on the after deck of the vessel during the most dangerous phase of handling the massive anchors routinely deployed in the offshore industry.
Unusual in the offshore support vessel world at the time of its delivery and despite having been applied in ships since the 1930s, Bourbon Orca was equipped with diesel-electric propulsion. Today, it is unusual for any new OSV not to be diesel electric.
Marking 10 years since Bourbon plucked up its courage to order the first X-Bow, Tore Ulstein, deputy CEO at Ulstein Group, said that the Bourbon X-Bow story really started in 2004, when Ulstein was working with the OSV operator and several industry players on a project to improve the safety of anchor handling operations.
“Trond Myklebust, who at the time was marketing director of Bourbon Offshore Norway, challenged us; to rethink the design of parts of the vessel, including the bow,” said Ulstein.
“Bourbon asked us to dare . . . and together we did it by designing the X-bow, the first inverted bow vessel.”
Bourbon Orca remains in service, Bourbon went on to order more of the class and, today, the X-Bow has become almost ubiquitous across the North Sea and around the world with more than 100 examples ordered to date for a variety of ship owners and offshore energy applications worldwide.
The design is also being adapted for naval and wider merchant vessel applications, including for carrying containers and for leisure purposes.