Shipping Special. Harwich welcomes Drilling platform Paragon B391. 17th August 2017

The drilling Platform Paragon B391 sails to Harwich after her latest contract with Centrica, a subsea plug and abandonment finished in June off the UK Coast in the North Sea. In 2016 the Paragon B391's last contract was with Centrica for just about a month end of October to end of November 2016 at a cost of $53,000 a day but previous to that she was also contracted with Centrica from March to May 2016 at a day rate of $85,000.

The Paragon B391 was built in 1981 to explore for natural gas in the world's seas and oceans. Now in 2017 she has been used to plug a wells off the coast of Norway and off the UK coast.  The contract off the UK coast finished and as she is not self proppelled 3 ocean anchor handling tugs were sent to tow her from her last place of work to Harwich International Port.

The UOS Voyage was the lead tug with the Union Lynx being the port tug and the Thor being the starboard tug. Slowly making her way towards the North Shipwash 2 pilots, Senior pilot @rascalmaster and the other unknown at the moment, headed out on a pilot launch to meet the tugs and to at the Cork Pilot Station. The pilot boarding time was delayed by an hour, this could have been due to that she was only going a maximum of just 3.9 knots over the ground or it could have been to let the DFDS ferry Selandia Seaways to pass before the channel narrowed.

The pilot estimated that it would toake around 2 - 2 and a half hours to reach the Beach End turn into the harbour. He also requested that a Svitzer tug preferably one of the smaller tugs to meet them inside the harbour at the Fort Buoy to be fast aft before the Guard/ Shotley Spit to help with getting her in position close to the quay. Svitzer Sky came on the radio to ask the pilot if he minded if the Svitzer tug could be the Svitzer Kent. The pilot had no problem with that. The pilot also said that the 2 big tugs UOS Voyager and Union Lynx would be no help with getting her close to the final position due to their size.

Slowly but surely the Paragon made her way inwards, you could see her legs for miles before you could see the tugs.  As she begins to round the 90deg beach End the tugs were changing course by 5deg at a time before she was on a northerly heading inside the harbour.  It is not very often that Harwich get anchor handling ships but the Paragon had 3 of them.

Passing the Viewpoint at Felixstowe loads of people stopped to take photos of her arrival. The pilot began to get the tugs to steer to port to get around the Guard and Shotley Spit into the River Stour. Close to her final position the plan was to jack her up to then get a few lines onto the quay side.

It is unknown at his stage if she has been dumped for a while or she has come to Harwich for stores and maintenance.

Paragon B391
Drilling platform
72.54m x 64.62m
Built: 1981
Drilling depth: 20,00ft


Union Lynx      IMO: 9178410
73.5m x 16.4m
G.T. 2590t
Built: 1999
Bollard pull: 300 tonnes
Engine: 14831 bhp

UOS Voyager      IMO:9439967
76.5m x 17.5m
G.T. 2922t
Built: 2010
Bollard pull: 200 tonnes
Engine: 16,320bhp

Thor    IMO: 9056789
45.48m x 15m
G.T. 1,229t
Built: 1993
Bollard pull: 85 tonnes
Engine: 7080 bhp

Svitzer Kent      IMO: 9695602
32.7m x 12.82m
G.T. 793t
Built: 2015
Bollard pull: 82.5 tonnes
Engine: 6772 bhp