Acta Marine’s walk-to-work (W2W) and service operations vessel (SOV) Acta Auriga has completed its sea trials.
During the sea trials, the vessel was tested at maximum forward and backward speed, where the aftward speed featuring the X-Stern exceeded 12.5 knots and the registered forward speed exceeded 13.5 knots, Acta Marine said.
In addition, the company said that the noise and vibration level tests proved to be well within the limits of the high comfort class on the vessel.
The mission equipment, including the centrally positioned SMST-provided W2W motion compensated gangway and elevator tower for personnel and cargo transfers, as well as the 3D compensated SMST crane capable of 6-ton cargo lifts, has been installed and commissioned.
The SOV has now returned to Ulstein’s construction yard in Ulsteinvik, Norway, for completion.
According to the company, Acta Auriga’s X-Bow is important when the vessel is transiting in head seas, as it splits the wave energy, which means that it will be able to keep up speed with no slamming and fewer vibrations.
When being dynamically positioned at a wind turbine or an offshore platform, the captain’s choice will often be to keep the X-Stern towards the weather, which eliminates slamming, but also enables the vessel to stay positioned with lower thruster load and with reduced fuel consumption as a result, Acta Marine said.
After its delivery to Acta Marine, Acta Auriga will commence its first work at Ocean Breeze Energy’s Bard Offshore 1 wind farm in the German North Sea.