VESSEL REVIEW | Petro Craft 1905-10 – French-built fast crewboats with secondary dive support and SAR capability

French shipbuilder OCEA has handed over two aluminium crewboats in a series to Petro Services, a Monaco-based offshore support vessel (OSV) operator that primarily serves customers in the oil and gas market in West Africa.

The vessels, each of which has capacity for 40 passengers/technicians, were designed by OCEA to also be capable of transferring cargo and equipment to and from offshore platforms. This is made possible by the incorporation of a foredeck with an area of 25 square metres. This deck can accommodate an assortment of loads totalling 2.5 tonnes.

Each crewboat has an LOA of 20 metres, a beam of five metres, a main passenger cabin, and a wheelhouse with seating for two crewmembers. The propulsion arrangement consists of two main engines that each produce 671 kW and waterjets. This configuration delivers a top speed of 31 knots and a range of 350 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 24 knots.

OCEA said the two newbuilds are the final two vessels of an order for ten crewboats placed by the same customer. Although all ten crewboats belong the same series, the final two units to be delivered to Petro Services are upgraded variants that can each carry an additional 10 passengers while retaining the same overall dimensions and powerplant. However, to accommodate the increase in capacity on each of the two newer crewboats, their main cabins were enlarged, and this necessitated the relocation of the wheelhouses slightly forward on their respective main decks, making the newbuilds noticeably different in outline compared to their earlier sisters.

The wheelhouse on each boat has been raised to provide the crew with a full 360 degrees of visibility even with the adjacent main cabin. Also, the design emphasised improved comfort and safety, resulting in the interior being adequately insulated and the main cabin itself mounted on rubber studs to reduce both noise and vibration.

The crewboats are also versatile enough to be used as dive support vessels and even as search and rescue (SAR) craft. This enables the operator to provide a greater array of related services to clients without having to acquire additional assets.

A gyrostabiliser has also been fitted to significantly reduce rolling whether at zero speed – such as when embarking/disembarking crews at offshore platforms – or when cruising through wave heights of up to two metres. The electronics suite meanwhile includes a Garmin radar and a Teledyne FLIR rotating camera.

Lastly, a firefighting monitor supplied by Marsis is mounted on the cabin to expand each vessel's emergency response capability.

Both crewboats are currently sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands. For their initial operations, they have been supporting the activities of Petro Services' customers in the offshore market in Angola.

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