Swivel drive arrangement

Abstract

The vessel including a hull and a cylindrical turret well, with a weathervane around a geostationary turret located in the turret well, and at least one swivel supported on the turret. The inner wall of the swivel is connected to rotation drive which allows the fall swivel weight to be transferred directly to the turret. The inner wall of at least one swivel is rotatably connected to a swivel support structure on the turret via a bearing. The rotation drive is adapted for rotating the inner walls in conjunction with the vessel so that relative displacements between the swivel and the turret are reduced such that the layout of the pipe lines connected to the swivel can be simplified by the omission of expansion loops. As the weight of the swivel is carried by the turret, the rotation and pipe support structure can be relatively small. The outer walls of the swivel stack may be fixedly connected to the turret so that a separate rotational drive for the outer walls can be avoided.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.