Patent ID: 7044685

Claim:
A method for mooring a floating hydrocarbon drilling or production vessel to a plurality of tendons, said vessel characterized by having no temporary stability or buoyancy modules coupled thereto and by having a plurality of tensioning devices and a plurality of connection sleeves designed and arranged to receive upper ends of said tendons and be secured thereto, the method comprising the steps of, anchoring lower ends of said tendons to the seafloor, coupling a plurality of pull-down tension members from said tensioning devices to said upper ends of said tendons, tensioning said pull-down tension members using said tensioning devices to further submerge said vessel, concurrently ballasting said vessel, tensioning said pull-down tension members with high tension, submerging said vessel until said connection sleeves receive said upper ends of said tendons, coupling said connection sleeves to said tendons, and rapidly transferring said high tension from said pull-down tension members to said connection sleeves by slacking said pull-down tension members.