The company was originally formed to provide a certified and reliable workboat for the facilities management team at Plymouth Dockyard and has grown to offer its services to other clients in the Portsmouth area and beyond.

Built for their own use and completed just in time for seawork , Seaboard's Seaboard Constructor is a multicat-type workboat designed to carry a large capacity knuckle boom crane for use in harbour construction and survey duties.

The self propelled vessel boasts a new twin 360º azimuth propulsion system designed by Kort Propulsion.

It replaces the company's Hamble Guardian , which had been converted from an oil spill response vessel into a marine construction and diving support boat.

The larger and more adaptable platform of the new vessel has allowed more lifting capacity and deck area for a variety of tasks such as piling, core sampling and navaids installation.

The steel built vessel is 14.5m LOA with a breadth of 5.3m and an approximate draft of 1.2m in full load condition. Scantlings and construction conform generally to Lloyds Register of Shipping Special Service Craft and the boat works up to MCA category 2 status.

Construction was carried out conventionally from the keel plate up with a hull plate thickness of 10mm at the keel, 8mm for side transom and deck, and 20mm for bow static roller. A 900mm diameter crane pedestal is split either side of the forepeak bulkhead and continues from the deck flange down to the keel.

A strong protection cage is positioned around the propulsion units below water to avoid damage through grounding or impact.

An Amco Veba 36t/m knuckle boom crane supplied by IDSLE Davits is located to starboard and placed forward sufficiently to give good visibility from the helm position. Other deck hardware will consist of a 10t clutched winch and a smaller 2t deck tugger.

Power is provided by twin Cummins N855M main engines rated 195hp at 1,800rpm driving through Twin Disc HPTO 140 hydraulically activated clutches to the Kort propulsion units. A Kort Propulsion supplied Weka box cooler situated to starboard provides engine cooling. The steerable propulsion drives are a new venture for Kort, drawing upon their expertise from tunnel thrusters design to create an affordable option for small workboat designers and operators requiring a highly manoeuvrable vessel.

Electrical power is provided by a 100kVA Cummins 6BTA air-cooled genset located centrally in the engine room supplying two electro-hydraulic power packs in the machine room for the crane and winch.

A third, smaller displacement hydraulic power pack provides back-up to all systems and can be run from a small deck generator.

Position keeping is courtesy of three spud-leg locations on deck or conventional anchor system as required, the spuds being raised and lowered by the vessel's crane. Two substantial push knees protect the bow with solid rubber fendering around the deck level.

MJ Information No: 19560