Family values

“My father Sigmund inspired me, but so have so many other people involved in creating amazing ships, maintaining that approach to produce innovative designs that are always focused on safety, efficiency and operational capability.”

Senior Ship Designer Stig Ole started his career in 2000, after studying naval architecture at NTNU in Ålesund, and time on military service. During his studies he spent every vacation working in different departments at Ulstein shipyard, ranging from machinery installation to building steel hull modules and crawling tanks, and later doing engineering work. This was the perfect way to to get some hands-on production experience. Then, after graduation, he began working in the company as a discipline leader in structural design.

He says: “Initially I didn’t really have a clear plan to go into ship design, but focused on structural engineering and outfitting arrangements, getting involved in some of the basic and detailed engineering to get a deeper understanding of the ship-building process.”

Gradually, Stig Ole found his deepest passion was in the creative phase developing tailored ship designs, and since 2009 he has been working as Naval Architect/Ship Designer.

“I had an opportunity to join the company at a really transformational time. We were just starting out using 3D computer aided design, so we were putting this pioneering technology to good use, at a time when ships were starting to become more complex and global demand was high. 

“Our company has long had a reputation for designing robust, reliable and very capable ships, and we have been pioneers when it comes to matching the demands of our offshore customers. It’s a hard-earned reputation and it’s something we strive to uphold as we continue to innovate today.”

Green shift

Over the past 10 years, the main drivers of design have been reducing fuel consumption and environmental emissions. A lot of vessels have had battery power installed, and today every Kongsberg Maritime vessel design has some form of battery or hybrid system on board. Electrical systems, together with those to support alternative fuels, put pressure on the available space on board, and can have an impact on cargo capacity, accommodation, and machine spaces. “We are seeing a slight increase in vessel size to incorporate new technology, hydrogen derivate fuels and stricter damage stability requirements,” he says.

Perfecting the hull form

With advanced design tools and the recent addition of AI, the team has an effective way of calculating the key elements of a ship’s design, especially hull form. He adds: “We carry out detailed hydrodynamic analysis using our parametric design tools and can identify where even small changes to the hull shape can make big savings in efficiency. With some simple vessel particulars, such as length, beam and deadweight, we can produce an initial hull form proposal in minutes. It’s a real springboard in the design process.”

The next generation

Kongsberg Maritime recently unveiled a new range of designs for the offshore market. The new anchor handler (AHTS) and platform supply vessels (PSV) have the option to include alternative energy sources and fuels, such as methanol, ammonia and hybrid-battery power.

These next generation designs share a range of innovations to help owners address current and future challenges around efficiency, emissions reduction and developing market requirements. 

“One of the great innovations of the anchor handler design (UT 7800) is that it offers significantly reduced energy consumption and emissions during anchor operations. This is achieved with Kongsberg Maritime’s cross-tensioning system where the load testing of anchors will use the power of the winches rather than the traditional approach of one or more vessels using bollard pull and engine power. This approach will lead to significant cost savings, enabling this crucial task to be handled by a single ship, but also with significantly less use of engine power.

“The deck equipment and arrangement has been optimised for the larger dimensions and weights of the rope, chain and equipment than is typical within oil and gas, enabling operations outside these traditional markets, such as floating wind farms.”

The new PSV design range (UT 7400) has all the necessary features to address the latest regulations for the transport of the liquid products and the growing requirement for lower emissions and environmental footprint, including energy consumption reduction and readiness for future fuel transition.

“Our ship designs continue to evolve, and changes to regulations and uncertainty around preferred fuels have driven the demand to create ships that are ready for the future and give owners the confidence to invest, knowing their ships can adapt to meet future requirements,” adds Stig Ole.