‘Bibby Athena’ makes progress

Fabrication of the hull is now complete. The vessel will mirror the capabilities of Bibby’s flagship vessel, Bibby Tethra, with a few changed to reflect the company’s development into shallow geotechnical sampling and a more challenging offshore market.

The company says Bibby Tethra, launched in 2011, has proven the success of the small waterplane area twin hill (SWATH) design in maximising stability and sea keeping ability in challenging sea conditions.

Osiris says the popularity of the vessel is ultimately the reason for building another.

Although Bibby Athena will be the same length as Bibby Tethra at 27.5m, the vessel will feature an increased deck crane capacity of 10.87 tonnes and improved internal layout.

The addition of two forward Schottel pump jets and larger aft electric Schottel drive motors will provide good DP1 capability and an increased generator size will provide 850kVa of electrical power.

To maximise efficiency, Bibby Athena will be permanently mobilised with a dual-head multi-beam system, which is expected to improve the productivity of bathymetric data acquisition. In addition, a water treatment facility will be added to extend offshore endurance.

A double drum main winch with two cable sizes will allow for the deployment of multiple systems without re-mobilisation. A larger online survey lab will improve the volume of data processing and initial QC that can place onboard, reducing the amount of processing required in the head office.