Heavy Lift Vessel
Heavy lift vessel is a special purpose cargo ship that is used for moving offshore rigs long distance. The process is called 'dry tow'. Offshore Jack Up rigs are not self propelled units and need to be towed using tug bats from one location to another. If the two locations are too far from each other, this towing may take a very long time. To reduce the rig mobilization time, the rig is loaded on to a Heavy Lift Vessel. HLV can sail at a much faster speed thus reducing the rig mobilization time considerably.