August 11 - Offshore Heavy Transport (OHT) has completed the conversion of a 123,000 dwt shuttle tanker into its fifth semi-submersible heavy transport vessel, Albatross.
The original vessel, formerly known as Tordis Knutsen, was built in 1993. The conversion took place at Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry.
The reconfigured 35,000 dwt vessel has a free deck length of 129.5 m and a breadth of 42.5 m, with the ability to submerge to 9.5 m below water. The vessel is capable of loading modules weighing over 10,000 tonnes.
OHT explained that the vessel has been built with a very high hull strength, in order to allow the carriage of a large variation of cargoes. Its uniform deck load capacity is 30 tonnes per sq m, while the longitudinal hull strength is such that the vessel can execute load-out operations with drafts as low as 5.5 m.
