Powered platform supply vessels portend a paradigm shift in yacht propulsion?
February 2016
at $60 million each), Harvey is the first U.S. oil field company to build to both Green Passport and Enviro+ standards, and is reportedly paying an extra $4 million per vessel for the privilege. More than simply tracking what goes into the construction and operation of a given boat, Enviro+ mandates the presence of a trained environmental officer on board at all times, a sanitary system approved by the International Maritime Organization, the use of biocide-free antifouling and other paints, incinerators for trash, super-sensitive oily-water separation equipment, onboard refrigerant recovery units and LED lights.
Will Enviro+ or some similar program become de rigueur for yachts as well? Again, chances are pretty good, I’d say. When Detillier and I entered Harvey Energy’s wheelhouse, Capt. David Pacy stood near the after control station, some five stories above the aft deck, looking down through a tall, thumb-thick window at the tank trucks below. A young fellow stood alongside him: Lt. Dallas Smith, a U.S. Coast Guard LNG expert who’d come aboard to monitor the bunkering operation as part of the Coast Guard’s ongoing push to create official regulations and standards for the safe and efficient marine transfer of LNG.
As Detillier dealt with introductions, I sized the place up, basing my impressions upon the years I’d spent running smaller, simpler PSVs in the Gulf some three decades earlier. It didn’t take long to draw a heartfelt, nostalgia-tinged conclusion: Harvey Energy’s bridge was more like a rocket ship’s than anything I could even vaguely remember. It had phalanxes of commercial-grade Furuno multifunction devices at both the forward and after control stations; a computer terminal area with phones, cushy chairs and Corian countertops; and the joysticks and other paraphernalia associated with a Kongsberg dynamic positioning system that relies on downto-the-inch-precise Differential GPS, laser and infrared stationkeeping technology, a couple of Sperry gyrocompasses and a raft of sensors that, in addition to helping maintain heading and position, even in high seas, can efficiently cut surge, sway and yaw.
of Tier 4 and the other environmental-regulations that are coming, but it’ll also be the cheapest way for crews to live and work, in terms of pure, day-to-day practicality.” Of course, the folks at Trinity Yachts are not the only big-time fans of LNG. More to the point, some three years ago, Monacobased Stefano Pastrovich, the designer behind the trendsetting WallyPower 118 and other Wally vessels, introduced a 325-foot (99-meter) dual-fuel LNG yacht that Italian shipyard Fincantieri (which has launched a number of LNG-powered commercial vessels during the past few years) was prepared to build. Pastrovich calls her Xvintage.
“But at that time and even today,” Pastrovich said, “there are no regulations or standards for fueling such a yacht, and not so much infrastructure—and this makes buyers uncomfortable. The superyacht market is very conservative. So no one wants to be first to try LNG, even though there are no technical reasons why it will not succeed, especially in Europe where LNG for marine use is perhaps more accepted and available right now. So sadly we have never built the yacht yet.”
I watched Harvey Energy’s LNG bunkering operation from both her wheelhouse and the control module in her engine room. It’s a sight to see, for sure, compared with the views at a regular yacht fuel dock. With chief engineer Dwain Brooks and his engineering team gravely but calmly overseeing the entire thing, the transfer of approximately 20,000 gallons of cryogenic fluid from the two trucks took just about three hours. The process seemed to go smoothly.
But then, at its conclusion, the same issues that pestered Pastrovich were starting to pester me. Exactly how, in the absence of sanctioned, standardized procedures, would a yacht’s crew be able to deal safely with a bunkering operation that entails temperatures of minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit? And where, exactly, would such bunkering take place?
With the can-do attitude that characterizes oil field guys the world over, Detillier made short work of both concerns during a meal we shared with Harvey Energy’s crew. “Think about it Bill,” he said. “Right now, with the boats and this new bunkering facility, Harvey’s got a very, very substantial amount of money invested in LNG. So trust me, man. The regulations and the infrastructure— they’re gonna come.”
“Good point,” I replied as the peach cobbler came around. “And hey, once you guys get LNG going big-time in the oil field, I can certainly see yachts comin’ next.”