The ‘Seven Borealis’, Subsea 7’s flag ship, is currently in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) for final outfitting at the Huisman facilities.

The vessel is the first customized version of Ulstein Sea of Solutions’ successful SOC 5000 vessel design and fully developed by the Netherlands based Ulstein design office. The vessel features an offshore mast crane which can lift 5000 mt and will be capable to perform both J-lay as S-lay operations.

‘Seven Borealis’ is the first Vessel of SOC 5000 Design:

In 2006/2007, Ulstein Sea of Solutions developed the SOC 5000 heavy lift vessel design. Early in 2012, ‘Seven Borealis’, the first vessel based on this design, set sail.

Originally contracted by Nordic Heavy Lift to Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore as a 5000 t heavy lift vessel, it has since been upgraded to a deepwater construction vessel for Subsea 7. Unlike the original SOC 5000 design, the ‘Seven Borealis’ incorporates a centre line pipelay firing line, enabled through lifting the vessel’s entire accommodation block and main crane. The vessel will also be equipped with a J-lay tower. The final outfitting of ‘Seven Borealis’ takes place in the Netherlands, and only a short distance from the designer’s offices.

Subsea World News Staff , May 15, 2012; Image: Ulstein