The Idea
As a former officer on anchor handling vessels, Thomas Netland saw the need for a safer way to secure drifting vessels in bad weather.
Situations with drifting vessel occur often, and there are numerous reasons to why; Fire, blackout, evacuation(unmanned), lost steering, fishing gear tangled in the prop. Every situation is a potential serious hazard to marine installations and coast lines.
However, the situation that triggered the development of StormLinker was a unmanned barge drifting around in the North Sea for days after the tow snapped in heavy weather. Several attempts with existing equipment were made, but they all failed repeatedly due to the weather conditions. In desperation, life threatening situations occurred for the rescue personnel.
The drifting barge was predicted to collide with the Valhall oil field. Both Valhall and Ecofisk oil fields where evacuated and shut down. In the end the anchor handling vessel that Thomas worked on were able to secure the barge right next to the Valhall installations when the weather calmed down. But it was clear that this situation, and all other situations with drifting vessel are all reliant on coincidence with the weather showing mercy.
We needed an effective way of securing the tow no matter what state the drifter was in, no matter weather conditions, and making sure all rescue personnel is located in safety zones inside the vessel under operation; Introducing StormLinker.