Trans RINA, Vol 153, Part A1, Intl J Maritime Eng, Jan-Mar 2011
Jack-ups: Between 20-30 units depending upon specification (many very old units).
Ships: only a few units are expected in the short term. See Table 3.
Increased activity in new deepwater developments will require
dynamically positioned of mono-hull and accommodation
support. Dynamic positioning is the best option for station keeping for waters over 300 m in depth. Therefore, the majority
semisubmersible flotels in production are equipped with DP systems, and some of the existing units are even being retrofitted with them.
9. CONCLUSIONS
We have seen through the paper how a wide variety of marine structures are used as accommodation vessels or flotels:
from pontoons to jack-ups, from passenger
ships to semisubmersible barges. In choosing the most suitable floating structure the location where it is intended to operate, depth and meteocean conditions (waves, wind and current) are the main parameters to have in mind. So there is not a single solution to providing floating accommodation, but several.
At the same time that the oil & gas industry is going to deeper and deeper waters, the offshore wind industry seems to be the next one that will require offshore flotels, but
certainly with specific requirements
different from those in oil and gas; so new concepts of offshore flotels are expected. The CSS Accommodator shown below is an example of this emerging market for offshore accommodation.
2. 3.
Figure 23: CSS Accommodator. (source: Marine Asset Corporation )
As the 21st century will be the age of ocean colonization, mainly using the ocean renewable energies, it is expected that it will be also the age of floating accommodation.
combining floating accommodation with ocean resources exploitation, perhaps this century will see the first floating cities, like the Green Float, the Botanical City Concept from Shimizu Corporation.
4. 5. Going a step further, 6. Figure 24: Green Float. Source: Shimizu Corporation
10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all the staff and community members from The Seasteading Institute, (California) for having encouraged me in writing about this interesting idea of Ocean Colonization, that is the central idea of my PhD dissertation at the University of Coruna.
I would like also to give thanks to Eric Tupper, from the Royal Institution of Naval Architects for the final revision of the paper.
11. 1.
REFERENCES
FRIEDMAN, Patri; GRAMLICH, Wayne. Seasteading:
A Practical Guide To
Homesteading The High Seas. Palo Alto, California-USA: The Seasteading Institute, June 2009.
BOLONKIN, Alexander. Floating Cities, Islands and States. Brooklyn, NY: C&R, 2009.
CHAKRABARTI, Subrata K. Handbook of offshore engineering. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2005.
EL-HAWARY, Ferial. The ocean engineering handbook. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2001.
MATHER, Angus. Offshore engineering an introduction. London: Witherby & Company Limited, 1995.
GERWICK, Ben C. Jr. Construction of marine and offshore structures.
San 7.
California: CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group, LLC , 2007.
HANCOX, Michael. Barge Mooring. London: Oilfield Publications Limited, 1998. (The Oilfield Seamanship Series: Volume 6)
Francisco,
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©2011: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects
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