Greatship Vimla

TYPICAL ANCHOR HANDLING PROCEDURES

FOR SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE RIGS / DRILL SHIPS

The scope of this document is to detail procedures for anchor

handling of Semi-subs rigs and Drill ships with the use of equipment
fitted on board Greatship Vimla.

The difference between Semi-Subs and Drill ships as for anchor

handling is concerned is that Drill ships do not have the crane on
forward and aft of the ship, so the chaser wire is picked up and
returned by rigging of Heaving line, Messenger line and Mooring
hawser. All other process remain same.

The vessel carried out Anchor handling and positioning of semi-sub

rig and drill ship in close proximity to one another where ones’
anchor stretched into others’ domain.
In the illustration below we see one of the semi-submersible oil rig's
moorings. Most oil rigs are equipped with the shown anchor chain fairleads.
This is mainly to enable supply vessels to come alongside the rig, but also to
give the moorings the best efficiency. The chaser ring is seen resting on the
upper end of the anchor chain with the free end of the connected chaser wire
stored on board the rig as shown.

The setup shown in the picture is a typical oil rig mooring, and the supply
vessel is seen approaching stern first, ready to receive the chaser wire.
The supply vessel has now approached the rig and the wire from the tugger
winch has been made ready on deck. The ship is equipped with two tugger
winches, which are used for handling anchors on deck, retracting chaser
wires as in this situation as well as a variety of other purposes. The tugger
wire is laid out through the Towing Pin (or A-Guide). The oil rig's crane carries
the lose end of the chaser wire and lifts it downwards toward the supply
vessel. A messenger wire is attached to the eye of the chaser wire.
The crew grab the messenger wire with a boat hook and connect it to the
tugger wire. The tugger wire has a diameter of approximately 25-30
millimetres with a break load near 30 tons. The tugger winches are very
powerful and can easily break the wire, so the winches are used very carefully
when handling heavy loads.

With the tugger wire connected to the messenger of the chaser wire, the crew
start heaving in on the tugger wire. At the same time the oil rig crane pays
out wire until the entire weight of the chaser ring and wire is carried by the
tugger winch. Heaving in the tugger winch is continued until the eye of the
chaser wire is past the shark jaws, at which point the jaws are closed. The
tugger wire carrying the chaser wire is then paved out until the eye of the
chaser wire is resting in the shark jaw. The tugger wire and the messenger
wire can now be removed from the eye.
With the tugger and messenger wire out of the way the ship's main working
wire is now connected to the eye of the chaser wire. The working wire is
another name for the wire on the anchor handling winch, the supply vessel's
main winch. The hook-up is done manually by crewmembers. The eye of the
work wire and the eye of the chaser wire are connected with a shackle, and
afterwards the work wire is heaved in until the weight of the chaser ring and
wire are carried entirely be the anchor handling winch. At this point the
shark jaws can again be opened.
After opening the shark jaw the work wire with attached chaser wire is payed
out according to the local water depth. Meanwhile the supply vessel starts
moving ahead dragging the chaser ring along the anchor chain. This is done
at low speed, 1 or 2 knots. The charterer might equip the supply vessel with a
navigational system showing the location of the mooring anchors and anchor
chains on a screen or follow the co-ordinates given by Rig Master. The ship's
own position is also plotted on the screen, helping the officers on board the
vessel to know when to expect being at the location of the anchor etc.
The ship has now pulled the chaser ring all the way out to the anchor.
Exactly when the ring is at the anchor can be seen on board the supply
vessel, since it will stop in its slow forward movement. The throttle is eased a
bit and heaving in the work wire is initiated. This will pull the vessel back
until it is almost directly above the anchor. The continued heaving on the
work and chaser wire will eventually lift the anchor out of the seabed. At this
time, the oil rig will have payed out a bit on the chain, so that the tension on
it doesn't overwhelm the equipment and the AHTS vessel.

Overshoot from the anchor position:

The vessel will be required to overshoot from the anchor position by the
simple formula and illustration as below – The horizontal distance. The
payout on the work wire along with the length of chaser added (pennant out)
is 1.2 times the depth of water at the anchor drop position. This gives the
required pull on the anchor in the opposite direction of the flukes so that
flukes slide out from the mud. Any amount of vertical pull on the anchor will
not dislodge the anchor from the mud. So right amount of pennant length out
and overshoot of the vessel is required to pull the anchor out of mud.
The vessel keeps heaving in the work wire whilst a little throttle ahead is
maintained. This is to avoid the weight of the anchor chain pulling the vessel
backwards. When the anchor reaches the same depth as the vessel's
propellers the forward thrust is stopped so that the jet of water won't make
the anchor spin and get entangled with the anchor chain. By now the oil rig
will also start heaving in the anchor chain so the vessel will start moving
slowly astern. This is a particularly dangerous part of the operation, since the
low working deck is highly likely to get flooded when the vessel is moving
astern! Depending on the water depth, the anchor chain might be dragging
along the seabed while being winched in by the rig, or it might be hanging in
a curve from the chain fairlead to the stern of the AHTS vessel.
If the anchor has been deployed correctly when the rig moorings were laid out
and if the anchor has been lifted off the seabed correctly it should face the
correct way when reaching the vessel's stern roller. The A-guides are opened
and the anchor and the connected chain are pulled onto the deck. When the
anchor has passed the guides, these will be closed around the anchor chain.
Also the shark jaws will be closed around the chain and then the work wire
can be slacked off and work on the anchor initiated.

If the anchor is not facing the right way on the stern roller it usually helps to
lower it a bit and maybe give it a short burst of propeller thrust. If the anchor
can't be brought to face the right way you can still just heave it on board, but
working with the anchor will be a little more difficult.

Depending on what the assignment, the anchor can now be disconnected

from its anchor chain and the supply vessel's work wire connected to the
chain instead. Then the oil rig can be towed by the anchor chain. The anchor
can also remain connected to the wire and the vessel will then sail back to the
oil rig whilst the rig heaves in the anchor chain. When back at the rig the
vessel lowers the anchor back out over the stern whereby the oil rig can pull
the anchor onto its "bolster" where it is stowed when the rig is not moored.
The chaser wire can then be disconnected from the work wire and the lose eye
of the chaser wire lifted back onboard the oil rig.
Laying back / dropping the anchor:

Laying back the anchor is similar to picking up the anchor except that while
picking up the anchor you carried only chaser from the rig, now you are
carrying chaser along with the anchor on vessel’s stern roller and rig slacking
on the anchor wire as you keep moving in the direction of the anchor drop
position.

The vessel overshoots by the calculated horizontal distance and then engine
power is quickly reduced so that vessel is pulled behind by the weight of
chain and anchor. This way anchor shoots to the bottom (illustration below)
and gets embedded in the mud. Once anchor hits the bottom, which can be
concluded by tension reducing on the anchor winch, stop engine.

Rig will take tension on the chain and will advise you if anchor holding. When
rig has taken weight / tension, you run back the chaser to hand over to the
rig. Running chaser can be done by moving astern on the engine or vessel can
turn around carefully in position and go head facing to the rig.

A manual on oilfield seamanship notes,

“Anchor Handling is an activity which is exhilarating, boring, exhausting,

terrifying and often professionally very satisfying. It can test boat handling
skills to the limit and try a Master’s patience beyond what the most
phlegmatic of personalities should reasonably have to tolerate.”

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