METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE POSITION OF MOORED MARINE VESSELS

• Main Authors: FLINT JOHN CHARLES, STEPHENS RICHARD IAN, WILKINS ANTHONY JOHN HOWARD
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 24.01.2013
• Subjects: EQUIPMENT FOR SHIPPING; MARINE PROPULSION OR STEERING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; RELATED EQUIPMENT; SHIPS OR OTHER WATERBORNE VESSELS; TRANSPORTING

The present invention provides a method of controlling the position of a spread moored marine vessel (1). In particular, the method of the present invention substantially maintains the position of a spread moored vessel (1) in, or on the boundary of a target area (2) using thruster assistance. This is done by monitoring the position of the vessel and when the vessel (1) is positioned outside of the target area (2) applying a position correcting thrust (7) to the vessel (1) in the direction of an aim position located on the boundary of the target area (2) and when the vessel (1) is positioned within the target area (2) reducing the position correcting thrust (7) applied to the vessel (1) or maintaining the position correcting thrust (7) applied to the vessel (1) at zero. The present invention may also apply a damping thrust (7) to the vessel (1) in order to damp the positional variation of the vessel (1). The present invention also provides a thruster assisted mooring system for a spread moored vessel (1) operating according to the method of the present invention.