Peene Shipyard Delivers Coast Guard Vessel to Swedish Coast Guard

Today, the Peene shipyard in Germany successfully completed a new series that was part of an order obtained during insolvency. The coast guard vessel (Kustbevakningen Vessel) KBV 034 was handed over to the Swedish Coast Guard, with a reflagging ceremony at dock 2 of the Peene shipyard in Wolgast, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The Swedish Coast Guard originally placed the order for a total of four new coast guard vessels in 2008. Two of the coast guard vessels were already delivered in June and July of 2012.

After the Peene shipyard filed for insolvency, that contract had to be reaffirmed. The new contract for the completion of the two remaining vessels in this series was negotiated with the Swedish Coast Guard by Dr Tobias Brinkmann of insolvency administrators Brinkmann & Partner and Axel Schulz of P+S WERFTEN GmbH. The contract was signed in November 2012. The first coast guard vessel in connection with this new contract, the KBV 033, was handed over by the Peene shipyard in February of this year. Today, during the reflagging ceremony attended by the Swedish client as well as by the shipyard’s management and employees, the Swedish flag was raised on the final vessel in this series.

While taking possession of the fourth coast guard vessel, Commodore Åke Dagnevik, Director of New Construction for the Swedish Coast Guard, had this to say:

“We are pleased that it was possible to conclude this new contract with the insolvency administrator. It was important for the Swedish Coast Guard because our four coast guard vessels are fitted out with outstanding technical equipment. The experience gained from deploying the first two vessels could be applied to the entire series. In order to achieve the same high standard with all four coast guard vessels, the first two vessels will be retrofitted with regard to some points at the Peene shipyard. This has already occurred with the first coast guard vessel. The second one will return to the shipyard in May for that purpose. In terms of these adjustments we are also working very well with the Peene shipyard.”

“This order was especially significant because it ensured employment during a difficult time for the Peene shipyard,” explains Dr Tobias Brinkman from the insolvency administrators Brinkmann & Partner. “I would like to thank the Swedish Coast Guard for the confidence they placed in the shipyard. With the two coast guard vessels the employees have demonstrated their competence when it comes to constructing naval and patrol boats. That was important during the phase when we were looking for investors.”

“The Peene shipyard stands for decades of experience and a high degree of specialisation when it comes to building ships for naval and government authorities. We’re pleased that we were able to demonstrate that with the successful completion of the new series today,” said Axel Schulz, the agent for the insolvency administrator, during the reflagging ceremony. “This shows the high level of competence and quality of the Peene shipyard workers. Thanks to the outstanding teamwork and the mutual trust gained over time between the client and the shipyard, it was possible to successfully complete the series of very sophisticated vessels with the highest level of system integration and functionality. We would like to thank the Swedish Coast Guard for the consistently fair way it cooperated with us.”

After the reflagging, the vessel will remain in Wolgast for a few weeks. The future crews will initially undergo extensive training here. After that, the new vessel is expected to leave the Peene shipyard outfitting dock in June and head for its future home port of Helsingborg in southern Sweden.

About the coast guard vessel KBV 034 (Kustbevakningen Vessel) 
The coast guard vessel KBV 034 is the fourth in a series that the Swedish Coast Guard commissioned from P+S WERFTEN. The approximately 52-metre-long and 10-metre-wide specialist vessels will be deployed by the Swedish Coast Guard to cover their whole range of tasks, such as monitoring shipping traffic in coastal areas, providing border security, carrying out customs service and protecting fishing. Furthermore, thanks to specialist equipment, the “Swedish Coast Guard Multi-Purpose Ship KBV” is capable of fighting fires at sea and in port, carrying out search and rescue (SAR) and conducting disaster operations for cleaning up oil spills. The coast guard vessels are designed and built for a service life of 30 years. The new vessels will be able to operate in the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia, in the Skagerrak and Kattegat, on the large Swedish lakes Vänern and Mälare, and in European coastal areas even during winter conditions with outside temperatures down to minus 25°C.

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Naval Today Staff, April 26, 2013; Image: Peene