552 May 2009

Tidewater Continues to Built Diesel-Electric

Tidewater's Couper Tide alongside at Ningbo China.

Couper Tide alongside at fitting out dock

Having met success with five diesel-electric platform supply vessels (PSVs) built at Singapore’s Yantai Raffles Shipyard, Tidewater is having additional vessels built in China. Currently the firm has 12 Cummins-powered diesel-electric vessels on order at the Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding yard. (See Cummins Hotips#532)

An additional a four-boat order Is being completed at the Shejiang Shipbuilding Company yard near Ningbo China. The first of the vessels, the Desoto Tide was delivered in January ’09 with the second, the Gubert Tide receiving extra outfitting at Tidewater’s Hong Kong facility in late April. The third vessel, the Couper Tide was alongside at the Ningbo shipyard being completed for delivery at the end of May. A fourth vessel the Wise Tide was also under construction.

All four of these vessels are designed by Seattle’s Guido Perla and carry the designation GPA670 MKIII to indicate the 73.2-meter length. The Mark III in the identifier indicates a particular set of options and outfittings that differ from other GPA670s, but the propulsion package remains the same. Set on the main deck level to leave virtually the full 16.5-meter wide hull available for cargo, the main engines include three Cummins QSK60 powered 1,825 kW (2,501 hp) generators. These provide electrical power to the two 2000 hp electric motors that power a pair of aft-mounted azimuthing drives set along side a fixed centerline propeller. A pair of tunnel bow thrusters with controllable pitch propellers gives the boat a DP2 rating.

.Couper Tide at Zhejiang Shipyard.

In a statement on the GPA670 vessels the designer says, “The diesel-electric propulsion system is environmentally friendly by decreasing CO2 emissions by 30% and it also offers improved fuel efficiency. Clients benefit from considerable cost savings, as the installation of diesel generators of different output ratings can provide smaller increments of power to best suit a given operational mode. Additional electric consumers can be added to the design, such as additional fi-fi pumps and bow thrusters without adding dedicated diesel engines to drive them.”

For further information and full specifications:

W.R. “Billy” Brown
Vice President
Tidewater Inc.
New Orleans, LA
USA
E-mail: BBrown@tdw.com

Gordon MacLeod
Tidewater Marine
Zhejiang Shipyard
Office: 137 5743 7598
Mobile: 159 9026 4386
E-mail: gmacleod@tdw.com

Simon Leng
Cummins Co. Inc. USA Shanghai Office
Suite 1103, 11th Floor
Metro Tower,
30 Tian Yao Qiao Rd.
Shanghai, 200030 200030
Phone: +86 21 6085 2701
Mobile: 1370 1835 643

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