Germany: Abeking & Rasmussen Celebrates Delivery of First SWATH-type Patrol Boat

On March, 31st SKRUNDA, the Delivery of the first SWATH-type Patrol Boat worldwide, was celebrated by Abeking & Rasmussen.

High ranking Latvian and German officials, led by the Latvian Defence Minister, Dr. Artis Pabriks and the German Parliamentary State Secretary of Defence, Christian Schmidt, participated in the delivery ceremony at Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard in Lemwerder/ Germany.

Commissioning into the Latvian Navy will take place on April 18th in Riga/ Latvia.

The contract was signed in September 2008 in partnership with Riga Shipyard, who is currently building a further vessel in Latvia.

SKRUNDA was designed and built to Germanischer Lloyd classification standards and has a length of 25.71m, a beam of 13.0m and a draught of 2.70m. The design derived from the well proven 25m SWATH@A&R Pilot Boats.

Abeking & Rasmussen delivered the first 25m SWATH@A&R vessel in 1999 and since then has a long pedigree of more than 20 SWATH vessels between 25m and 60m length delivered or under construction for owners worldwide.

Since the first SWATH@A&R pilot boat came into operation in the North Sea, these vessels are day after day in tough workboat operation in the North Sea, accumulating 3000 to 4000 operating hours per year.

Different to the parent design, SKRUNDA´s engines are placed in the lower hulls, leaving more space to accommodate a crew of 8 in the superstructure. The engine rooms are outfitted with MAN D 2842 engines rated 809kW at 2100 rpm, driving Servogear CPP through Servogear reduction gearboxes. With this redundant propulsion the trial speed was 21.4 knots.

All technical systems are chosen under consideration of the demand of cost effective high availability, same as with the commercial parent design. The use of widely-spread commercial of the shelf equipment ensures low maintenance costs. In addition with the small crew size low life cycle costs will result.

If required, additional special personnel can be accommodated in the spacious wardroom. Crew will enjoy a high degree of comfort with low vibrations and noise levels well below 65dB(A) – and most important the extraordinary sea keeping, SWATH vessels are known for. The 25m SWATH@A&R design offers motions in high sea state comparable to much larger – and much more expensive – conventional vessels of ca. 80m length.

This seaworthiness and a range of 1,000 nm qualify the new class for all sorts of offshore duties.

The wheelhouse offers good 360° visibility and is housing on the starboard the navigator´s/ helmsman´s position. To the center an engine control position allows supervision and operation of all ship´s technical systems. On the port side further space is available for daylight CIC for 3 operators to be fitted later.

Deck outfitting comprises of a crane aft, with a small RIB craft for shallow water pursuit. For ease of man over board maneuver or diving operations a hydraulic lift is installed on the starboard side. Particularly in the cold waters of the eastern Baltic quick man of board maneuver and the possibility to recover casualties suffering from hypothermia in a horizontal position are an important safety issue.

On the port side a small FiFi monitor is installed. Pedestals for .50cal. machine guns complete the current outfitting.

Between the two bows of the SWATH a Modular Mission Module in the size of a 20ft ISO container can be fitted. The payload of 6.0t for this module is sufficient, e.g. for a 35mm Rheinmetall Millenium Gun. Other modules may contain equipment for hydrographic survey, environmental protection, divers or MCM tasks.

The Offshore Patrol Boat is equipped with Raytheon X-band radar and fitted for later installation of an electro-optic sensor on the mast head.
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Source: abeking,April 6, 2011;