186results about "Marine vessel transportation" patented technology

A system operable by a single workman safely launches and recovers an unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) using a motor-driven carriage to transport the UUV to the water. The UUV is fitted to a reconfigurable sabot. An elevating ramp on the carriage supports the sabot and UUV on an elongate conveyer assembly having inclined rollers aligned with motor-driven belts to selectively outwardly and inwardly displace the UUV between the carriage and the water. Hinge members are used to rotatably connect the elevating ramp to the carriage, and a lifting mechanism connected to the carriage and ramp rotatably displaces the ramp about the hinge members. The rollers and belts displace the UUV on the conveyer assembly. A winch on the elevating ramp has a line connected to the UUV to lower and raise the UUV during launch and recovery operations.

Platform for drilling after or production of hydrocarbons at sea, consisting of a semi-submersible platform body which supports drilling and/or production equipment on its upper surface. The platform body is designed as a vertical mainly flat bottomed cylinder which is provided with at least one peripheral circular cut-out in the lower section of the cylinder since the centre of buoyancy for the submerged section of the platform is positioned lower than the centre of gravity of the platform.

Presented is an advance naval ship's stern appendage called an LCAC (Landing Craft Air Cushion) Lander, Launcher and Lifter (L⁴ system) to provide for landing and launching of amphibious hovercraft and increase the delivery capacity of amphibious hovercraft by naval vessels. The stem appendage which may be retrofitted on existing vessels or fully designed into new hull forms of new ships. Included in the stem appendage are longitudinally extending cantilever wingwalls, at least one hoistable platform with a backstop fold up gate, a med-moor ramp, drainage ducts, a resistance reduction leading edge, locking pins and a transfer conveyor system for amphibious hovercraft to gain access to and from the ship's decks above the waterline, and a hoisting system for raising and lowering the hoistable platform between said cantilever wingwalls.

Sub-ordinate and host maritime vessels are connected to each other by a tow loop trailed by the host vessel through a capture frame which engages the sub-ordinate vessel. The capture frame acts to engage the sub-ordinate vessel in the transitional coordinate space shared jointly between the sub-ordinate and host vessels, which vessels can be either or both surface-going, submersible, and/or non-surface vessels. The capture frame possess features which allow it to disengage from the host vessel while remaining semi-related and recoverable by a linkage of one or more tensioned lines to the host vessel during the time that its tow loop is connected to the sub-ordinate vessel.

An apparatus for use in offshore oil or gas production in which a plurality of vertical stabilizing columns are supported on a submerged horizontal water entrapment plate is provided to support minimum offshore oil and gas production facilities above a subsea wellhead, or subsea processing facilities, or a submarine pipeline, and whose main function is to provide power or chemicals or to perform other operations such as compression, injection, or separation of water, oil and gas. The apparatus is maintained in the desired location by a plurality of mooring lines anchored to the sea-bed. The respective size and shape of the columns and water entrapment plate are designed to provide sufficient buoyancy to carry the weight of all equipment on the minimum floating platform and mooring lines, umbilical and risers attached to it, and to minimize the platform motion during normal operations.

Devices, apparatus and systems for raising and lowering watercraft such as personal watercraft, jet skis, inflatables from transoms on boats, from bulkheads and from docks, and for raising and lowering other types of vessels. A single actuator such as a fluid operated cylinder and single piston can raise and lower a cradle that supports the personal watercraft. An crank bracket can be fixably attached to a crank shaft, and an arm which supports the cradle can be fixably attached to the crank shaft. The arm can be extendable to different lengths. The cradle can include a self-leveling carriage that uses rollers to roll on a curved surface of the cradle allowing the supported watercraft to remain in a substantially level position thereon. An adjustable swivel mount can also be used to lock the cradle to the arm in a fixed orientation.

A semi-submersible, multicolumn, deep draft, floating offshore oil and gas drilling and production platform comprises a floating hull having an adjustably buoyant base, a plurality of columns vertically upstanding from the base, and an equipment deck that is supported atop the columns when the platform is operationally deployed. Each of the columns comprises a cellular structure that includes a plurality of elongated tubes having a variety of cross-sectional shapes extending from the base to the top of the column. Each of the tubes defines one or more closed compartments. At least one of the compartments has a buoyancy that is fixed, and at least another one of the compartments has a buoyancy that is adjustable. The buoyancy of the compartments and the base can be controllably adjusted with pressurized air to provide a safer and less costly method for deploying the platform for offshore operations.

The present invention provides an apparatus, method and system for delivery of commercial cargo containers shore side without container terminals. The present invention utilizes containers made autonomous by coupling a container with a detachable propulsion system, having a motor and navigation and steering controls, permitting the rapid, controlled, efficient and safe delivery of cargo containers individually by water. Ballast units, deployment systems and control via remote units are also disclosed. These improvements allow the containers, utilizing their inherent buoyancy, to approach a shore autonomously according to a preplanned or remote controlled route to a specific location and in a specific order of arrival, thereby reducing the number of cargo handlers required, speeding the delivery process to the shore, and eliminating the need for high-technology pier-side equipment. The present invention allows the transfer of cargo at primitive shore sites as well modern pier facilities, and expedites the delivery of such cargo wherever needed.

A structure for a tidal flow energy generation system is fabricated from tubular framework having tubular modules with mounts for respective tidal flow turbine nacelles. The node modules include tubular limbs extending in transverse directions and elongate tubes and provided to interconnect with the tube limbs of the node modules. The structure can be pre-fabricated and transported to a location for deployment. The structure can be deployed by means of hovering the assembled structure to the seabed, for example by means of flooding the structure.

A marine buoy for the offshore support of subsea production and drilling activities that has a closed-bottomed base section with a solid ballast and variable ballast chambers, a chamber in the base section for storing equipment and supplies, and an upper section with a smaller cross-sectional area than the base section having an elevator shaft leading from the top of the upper section to the chamber in the base section. The upper section supports a deck for housing process equipment for operations that the marine buoy is supporting.

The vessel has a pair of flexible hulls flexibly coupled to a “cabin” between and above the hulls, thereby allowing the hulls to independently follow the surface of the water. Motor pods are hinged to the back of the hulls to maintain the propulsion system in the water, even if the stern of one or both hulls tends to lift out of the water when crossing swells and the like. Various other embodiments and features are disclosed.

A hull and seat assembly configured to be easily installed, secured and operated on production stand up PWC. The hull assembly (21) increases buoyancy and stability sufficient for multi-rider sit down operation while maintaining peak performance geometry. The arrangement of the hull provides rider foot wells (30,31), allows it to be fabricated and installed in one piece, and provides unobstructed water jet flow and turning capability. The seat assembly (81) provides a tandem seat for multiple riders, positions the handle pole and provides a platform (29) that eases boarding from deep water. The seat assembly fills the stand up foot well and extends rear of the transom for increased longitudinal stability. Storage space is provided in both the hull (53) and seat assemblies (66). The connection strategy concurrently secures the hull (21), seat (81) and PWC (26) together with one releasable fastener (70) and is arranged to be fail safe.

A crew boat for transporting personnel to and from an offshore platform is equipped with a passenger capsule and a basket-like cradle, which retains the passenger capsule adjacent a passenger deck during the voyage. The passenger capsule forms a watertight enclosure, which can serve as a life raft in emergency. The passenger capsule is equipped with its own automated heave compensation system, power supply, and stabilization means. The passenger capsule is equipped to be lifted and lowered onto the cradle using platform-mounted cranes.

The disclosure provides an offshore platform and related method, having: a floating structure, a truss assembly coupled to the floating structure, and a heave plate coupled to the truss assembly. The floating structure includes a pontoon adapted to be disposed at least partially below a surface of water in which the offshore platform is disposed; and at least three vertically extending columns coupled to the pontoon, the columns having a larger lateral dimension than the pontoon coupled to the column, creating a pontoon offset portion. The truss assembly includes at least three separated walls of trusses slidably coupled to the columns, each truss wall having at least two vertically disposed truss legs, each truss leg being slidably coupled to a column at the pontoon offset portion independently from a truss leg of an adjacent wall; and cross-bracing between the truss legs of each of the truss walls.

A semi-submersible offshore vessel (1) comprising:

• • a substantially ring-shaped lower pontoon (2);
  • starboard and port forward columns (6a, 6b), extending upwards from said lower pontoon (2);
  • starboard and port aft columns (6c, 6d) extending upwards from said lower pontoon (2), and
  • an upper deck structure (8) connecting upper portions (10) of the columns (6a, 6b, 6c, 6d) with each other, said upper deck structure (8) having a substantially rectangular module recess (12) for receiving one or more operation modules (14), for example carrying hydrocarbon processing equipment. The invention is especially characterized in
  • that said upper deck structure (8) is generally C-shaped, having a forward torsion box (16) extending transversally between the starboard and the port forward columns (6a, 6b) of the semi-submersible offshore vessel (1), and two mutually parallel longitudinal side beams (18) extending aft from the starboard and port forward columns (6a, 6b) to the starboard and port aft columns (6c, 6d), respectively, in such a way that said module recess (12) exhibits an open aft end (20), the width of which substantially corresponds to the width of an operation module (14), and
  • that said module recess (12) is delimited in a downwardly direction by a substantially planar module deck (22) which extends between—and interconnects—said longitudinal side beams (18).