Harding Keeps up the Pace Offshore with Heerema Sleipnir
Harding has been awarded contracts for nine FF1200 freefall lifeboat systems complete with davits on Heerema Offshore Services’s Semi Submersible Crane Vessel Sleipnir, to be built by Sembcorp Marine at its flagship Tuas Boulevard Yard in Singapore.
Heerema’s Sleipnir is one of just a handful of large offshore projects currently running, along with the Johan Sverdrup Field Centre in Norway, where Harding is also a supplier. “Everyone is talking about Sverdrup, but this project is every bit as big, with just as many systems,” says Harding’s regional sales manager Oddgeir Mælen.
And while deliveries are essentially based on offshore technology, the Heerema contracts pose a special kind of challenge. “The new crane vessel will provide service world-wide, so a number of relevant international standards had to be considered when selecting life saving equipment,” Mælen relates.
The FF1200 is a 70-person freefall lifeboat designed to DNV OS E-406 standards, the most stringent in the industry, far exceeding SOLAS rules for freefall lifeboats. The boats will be perfectly matched with their LA1200H and LA1200HO skid launch davits, specially designed for the FF1200.
The Sleipnir contract will push Harding just over the 100 mark on delivered FF1200 lifeboats, securing its place as an industry favourite.
Harding CEO Styrk Bekkenes comments, “We are extremely proud of winning such a competitive contract in today’s tight market. Harding has been through a major transition to reach our current level of capability, and in this bid we could really see the effects. Our people pulled together and stepped up to a new level.”