The collaboration offers a unique combination of ROV
and survey support services with FreeStar’s own, recently acquired and
outfitted vessel, the SSV
Navicula Star. While most mid-sized subsea companies specialize
in either vessel or ROV services, FreeStar’s owners believe that this
combination will give the new offshore service provider a competitive edge.
Founders Mark van der Star and Willem
de Vries, developed this concept over the course of several
years before having the opportunity to actively and commercially join forces
and acquire their first vessel ‘Navicula Star’ from the Royal Netherlands
Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ).
“With the purchase of this vessel, our
journey began”, says Mark, who has 25 years of
experience as a sailor, shipowner, and both operations and commercial director.
“The SSV Navicula Star is
equipped with an onboard ROV to quickly respond and save costs at the start of
a project. The vessel can accommodate 11
people and is equipped with a crane, 2 davits and an A-frame with several
winches, for deploying and/or recovering a variety of loads into or out from
the water. The ROV control and survey desk are situated inside at deck
level for quick response to the workdeck. With a draft of only 1 meter, it is
also capable of beaching. In our view, this makes the Navicula Star the
ultimate shallow water vessel.”
FreeStar aims to offer a comprehensive suite of
subsea services, including bathymetric and geotechnical surveys, cable
protection, and burial operations. ”Safety
is our top priority, and our procedures are ISO certified and comply with
voluntary ISM standards”.
Acquiring a new vessel requires time to fully
understand its systems. Therefore, FreeStar Subsea Services engaged TechBinder
with their Smart Vessel Optimizer (SVO) to connect all electrical systems and
optimize power management. Techbinder’s AI capabilities are instrumental in
understanding a vessel’s power dynamics and make data-driven decisions. With
the help of the SVO technology, the Navicula Star will be the first 44-year-old
vessel to become a truly ‘Smart Ship.’
In terms of ROV and survey services, FreeStar has
opted to collaborate with Periplus and their GR:Dit system to map all collected data,
web-based, and make it accessible for its customers. GR:Dit is an
interactive map enabling users to store and analyse all kinds of spatial
geodata.
The
system provides clients with direct access to the data while the survey and ROV
mission are still ongoing.