Super Computer accelerates Super yacht design

Urban Voyage, a New Zealand based 3D Design Studio have introduced Supercomputing power to the Super yacht industry through a recent collaboration with yacht owners and award winning builder ‘Yachting Developments’ in project ‘Bristolian’.

Bringing the 120ft (37m), Phillipe Briand designed composite sloop project to life, Urban Voyage were able to deliver overnight design changes and work 24-hour workdays to complete the project and its requirements. Utilizing an exclusive and ongoing partnership with Gen-i’s New Zealand Supercomputing Centre, Urban Voyage could process information with the power of the equivalent of over 1,000 cpus, thus dramatically reducing rendering time and allowing ‘on the go’ and real time changes to the project benefiting the owners, designers and builders unanimously.

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Dutch cargo ship collides with migrant boat

The crew of a Dutch cargo ship, which is thought to have collided with a migrants’ boat causing it to capsize, rescued two of the 12 passengers from the stricken vessel.

It is believed the cargo ship, the Fair partner, operated by the Rotterdam company Jumbo Shipping, collided with the smaller boat powered by an outboard motor causing it to capsize in the Mediterranean Sea. The Dutch crew also found a body in the water, but the remaining nine people are missing. The incident occurred about 200 kilometers off the Algerian coast. The migrants are thought to be Algerians who were trying to reach southern Spain. The Dutch transport and waterways inspection service is investigating the incident. The Dutch cargo ship was traveling to Oran in Algeria when the incident happened.
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Twenty years since first oil on North Alwyn platform

Twenty years ago, first oil was produced from North Alwyn platform, in the UK North Sea.

The Alwyn field, which lies 440 kilometers northeast of Aberdeen, was brought on-stream in November 1987. North Alwyn is currently one of the largest oil and gas processing platforms in the UK North Sea acting as a gathering hub for nearby fields with a production of around 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Since first oil, the North Alwyn hub has delivered over 900 million barrels of oil equivalent produced from the Alwyn field and from the satellite fields. The exploration and development programme that will be launched on the Alwyn Area in the coming three years represents an investment of around $800 million.
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Helix picks up SE Asia job

Houston-based Helix Energy Solutions has been awarded a $160 million, three-year contract by an unnamed oil company in South East Asia to provide a multipurpose vessel for offshore inspection, repair and maintenance operations.

Helix's wholly owned subsidiary Canyon Offshore will provide the M/V Olympic Canyon DP II vessel to begin work in April 2008 to support numerous offshore projects, said Helix. The vessel will be outfitted with two deep-water 150-horsepower Triton XLS workclass ROV systems, a variety of intervention tooling and support equipment, and a 140-tonne active heave compensated crane. Canyon has been very successful at bundling third party vessels with their robotic assets to provide key customers with a full suite of sub sea intervention.
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Dolphin Offshore plans foray into shipbuilding

With its Rs 400-crore greenfield shipyard project, yet to receive all necessary clearances, offshore service provider Dolphin Offshore Ltd is in the process of forging alliances with domestic shipyards into the booming shipbuilding market at the earliest.

Dolphin Offshore plans to consolidate its presence in the shipbuilding space by setting up a Rs 400-crore shipyard in three phases. ''The Gujarat Government has identified a suitable land at Jaffrabad, located northeast of Pipavav, for the proposed shipyard. After completion of the three phases of construction, the shipyard will be capable of dry-docking jack-up rigs, apart from constructing bigger ships. In fact, no shipyards in India can currently service the giant jack-up rigs used for offshore oil exploration. Dolphin sees tremendous potential in this space.

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