Albwardy Damen has received an award for its innovative design of the new Damen Multibuster 8020 shallow draught, multi-purpose vessel. The award was presented at the MASTECH international marine technical conference, held on board the iconic QE2 floating hotel in the UAE.

Albwardy Damen has been developing the Multibuster 8020 offshore workboat for the past two years in close consultation with a number of oil majors, operators and potential clients in the Gulf region. Over that time the size of the vessel has grown as clients have sought additional capability. While the Multibuster 8020 is 80 metres in length, making it the largest vessel to be built at Albwardy Damen Sharjah to date, it will also be available in 60 and 70 metre versions.

The award was based on a number of factors that make this vessel highly unusual. Its design draught of just 3.5 metres is exceptional for a vessel of this size and makes it ideal for the shallow waters of the Arabian Gulf as well as elsewhere in the world. It also stands out for having a deck strength between the stern roller and the anchor handling and tow winch, 800 m² in total, of 10 or even 20 tonnes per square metre as standard, in comparison to the usual 3 to 5 tonnes. The rationale for this is that it saves time and expense by making the deck ready to take any equipment or fulfil any operation without further modification, whether it be the installation of a walk-to-work gangway, a heavy crane or a 14-metre cable carousel.

And that’s not all. Albwardy Damen has taken the innovation a stage further by specifying a corresponding cofferdam below decks. This protection means that steel cutting and welding on the working deck above can be carried out without draining and or degassing the fuel tanks first – an operation that can take several days – and so further speeds up the mobilisation of new equipment. Special attention has also been given to the working deck sides. These are free of obstacles over the full deck length, resulting in maximum operational flexibility for the end-user.

The design offers spacious living and working interior spaces for 60 persons including SPS personal. The SPS personnel will find that the design offers a dedicated mission control room, a client office / meeting room and SPS day room. The design also has a gym with substantial head room, a prayer room, luggage store, a spacious changing room with adjacent laundry room, a ship’s office, multiple stores / linen stores, and a spacious multifunction mess room.

The diesel-electric, DP2 classed vessel is outfitted with a retractable azimuth bow thruster that results in low noise and vibration levels under DP conditions and good fuel economy when standing-by.

The design also ensures maximum visibility from the bridge of the foredeck and the aft working deck. The working deck includes direct access to multiple large deck stores, a deck workshop and two below-deck mission holds.

The diesel electric engine room is prepared for the future, and as such can be retrofitted with SCR systems and urea tanks.

Additional options include propulsion alternatives that can deliver a bollard pull from 45 to 95 tonnes, with the higher ranges aimed at potential clients who have indicated that they would use the vessel for towing and anchor handling. DP2 and a 1,000 tonne/ metre crane are also readily available. In all, the Multibuster’s high levels of operational flexibility will allow it to carry out a wide range of tasks across the renewables, oil and gas, marine contracting and dredging industries.

The vessel design has also been prepared for multiple deck equipment options including a 4-point anchoring system, A-frame, stern roller, dry cement bulk capability, and with deck space reserved for additional auxiliary craft.

The FiFi-2 classed vessel can be upgraded to FiFi-3 or FiFi-4 with minimal impact on the design.

The design and engineering partner engaged by Albwardy Damen for the Multibuster 8020 project was the ship designer and marine consulting agency OSD-IMT, which specialises in custom, one-off designs across a wide range of vessel types.

“At Damen we have been extremely successful with shallow draft workboats, notably our Shoalbuster and Multicat ranges,” says Pascal Slingerland, Regional Director Middle East for Damen. “These boats were originally mainly used in the dredging industry but have since became very popular in the oil and gas industry as well. The new Multibuster is a combination of the functionality found on both Shoalbusters and Multicats, but on a much larger and even more versatile, shallow draught workboat.”