Mooring

Mooring Spars, Floating Production Units and FPSOs is different from mooring Submerged Turret Production / Loading buoys. Floating platforms are held in a fixed position above the water line using multiple mooring lines connected to either driven or suction piles.
 

For floating platforms, the Ballgrab mooring connectors' female receptacles are first pre-installed in a docking porch mounted on each of the piles. Once the platform is in position, a male Ballgrab is attached to the end of each of the mooring lines and lowered from the surface ship for connection to the female receptacles on each mooring pile. By pre-installing the female receptacles on the piles, each of the male Ballgrabs is installed within a few minutes once positioned above the female receptacle.
 

Where a suction pile is used a docking porch is used to hold the female Ballgrab connector. Alternatively, for a driven pile a mudmat can be used to hold the female connector linked to the ground chain.

Click here to see a video of a female SMC held in a mudmat above a driven pile.
 

Ballgrab female connector with mooring chain attached