Patent ID: 8418639

Claim:
A mooring system for a vessel, the system comprising: a turret structure; a swivel unit mounted on the turret structure; a bearing assembly for rotatably mounting the turret structure at deck level of the vessel such that the turret structure extends into a moonpool of the vessel and such that the swivel unit is disposed above deck level; a plurality of conduits for fluid communication disposed in the turret structure; a buoy structure retrievable into the moonpool of the vessel and connectable to the turret structure; a locking assembly for mechanically locking the buoy structure to the turret structure; wherein the turret structure is rotatable to align the conduits to corresponding riser valve structures on the buoy structure prior to mechanically locking the buoy structure to the turret structure; and wherein the turret structure further comprises a recovery winch unit and a guide arm for retrieving the buoy structure, the guide arm pivotably positioned on a wall of the moonpool in a manner such that a recovery rope is centralized inside the moonpool during retrieval of the buoy structure.