Rig transport ship

The ship chartered to transport the Transocean Winner will arrive in Lewis later today.

The heavy lift vessel, the Hawk, is expected to anchor off Broad Bay on Tuesday night.

The damaged oil rig is to be floated onboard as deck cargo for a voyage to a scrapyard in Turkey.

The Hawk departed the Cromarty Firth in the early hours on this morning after discharging a giant jack-up rig.

The Hawk - one of the biggest heavy lift carrier vessels in the world - carried Noble Lloyd Noble platform from Singapore to Scotland.

Yesterday, the vessel took on fuel oil in preparation for the voyage to the Western Isles.

When the weather is suitable - almost calm conditions with low wind and swell - the semi-submersible heavy lift vessel will be ballasted to let it submerge below main deck level.

The rig will then be slowly floated onboard by small tugs and the ship will rise out of the water.

The 17,600 tonne platform will be welded to the deck of the ship - the overall process which is set to take a few days - to secure it for the voyage to the Mediterranean.

For the crucial loading period, wind speeds must be under 15 knots, 33 centimetre swell and an one knot current are required.

Floatation bags will also be used on the rig to straighten her up as one of the measures to reduce her draft by four metres.

Two propeller thruster units protruding three metres below her legs have been cut off by large underwater robots remotely operated by the MV Island Constructor.

It is then proposed the heavy-lift ship will take the rig towards Stornoway where it will lay-up at an anchorage at the back of Arnish lighthouse, outside just outside harbour limits.

There the platform will be welded to the deck of the ship - a process which will take at least three days of good, dry weather - to secure it for the voyage to the Mediterranean.

Rig transport ship to arrive this evening

20 September 2016

The Hawk is one of the biggest heavy lift carrier vessels in the world