During the design of this site I started to think that maybe I should make a full contribution to the ongoing development of the content of the site by building my own project. The hardest part of all new projects is to decide what the subject matter will be. I have always enjoyed building models that contain a high degree of detail. Modern offshore vessels are simple in design, due to the nature of modern manufacturing techniques, but they contain areas of intricate detail.

The vessel I have chosen to build is one of six built for Swire Pacific Group, by Ulstein Vertf, Norway (now Rolls Royce Marine A/S). The design is designated UT720. "Pacific Banner" was built in 1998 to fulfil Swire's medium size anchor handling and towage requirements in the waters around Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and the North Sea.

The Plans for this model where featured in Marine Modelling International, issue date January 2001, for one of the sister ships, "Pacific Buccaneer". Included with the article was the first half of a set of free plans for the vessel, with the second half in the proceeding months issue. I decided to purchase a complete set of the drawings as well from Marine Modelling International Plans Service. They cost £19.00 with postage and packaging and can be bought online at www.traplet.com, plan No MAR2849.

Once I had received the new set of drawings I spent some time studying them, to get a better understanding of the design of the ship. This helps to formulate possible construction techniques. When I studied the rib sections I discovered that the stern sections where not drawn at the same width as the bow sections, even though the ship has a constant width. I decided I would have to redraw the sections, otherwise I would not be happy with the finished result.

This vessel was only built in 1998 so obtaining information about it has been straight forward. The original article in Marine Modelling International gave the name of the owners, so I did a search for them on the internet. Swire Pacific Groups' website contains information on all of their fleet.  I have obtained large colour photographs of each of the six sister ships. Also each ship has a plan showing all the deck levels. Finally all the vessels have a data sheet detailing all the deck machinery, propulsion systems, accommodations and electronics.

The data sheet also gives the manufacturer of each item. I am currently in the process of searching for information on all the deck machinery, which have been supplied by Brattvaag, Norway, now part of Rolls-Royce Marine A/S. I have been on their website and found other information regarding who I can contact to continue my research of the ship. At the moment I have enough information to start the basic construction of the hull.  My search for information will continue at a later stage.