The other three Fassmer boats will be 27.2m long and 6.2m wide and for service in Baltic coastal waters. Officials said those boats will be smaller because of different conditions in the Baltic. For delivery in 2008, 2009 and 2010, they draw 1.7m and carry crews of four.

In March the Schleswig Holstein WSP ordered two smaller 18m long and 4.95m wide patrol boats with crews of four, drawing 1.2m, for port and waterway operation. Those 22 knot boats are for delivery next May and July. All six Fassmer boats are part of a police boat renewal programme lasting up to 2013. It is billed as the biggest ever in Schleswig Holstein.

The new vessels will replace older WSP boats, among them the 42 year old WSP flagship Falshöft, giving way to the first of the new Fassmer 27.1m boats in Spring 2008. Two further new WSP boats have already been delivered by the Sarins Batar Shipyard in Finland. Costing €350,000 apiece, they are 10.4m long and 3.4m wide Type Minor 34 MPV port/waterway police boats with speeds of more than 33 knots. For a maximum crew of six, they draw 1.1m and are driven by two six cylinder Yanmar engines each of 272kW. Police officials said three further boats of the same type were currently also being built by the same Finnish yard.

By TOM TODD