The design for the craft has been developed for Vroon in response to a booming market for North Sea standby vessels, with a focus on simplicity, functionality and crew comfort. The result is a new concept for safety standby vessels, with the rescue zone and fast rescue craft located amidships and the wheelhouse situated just aft of this zone, resulting in an optimised view of rescue activities from the control stations in the bridge wings. Crew accommodation is also located aft of the rescue zone, with the foreship dedicated to survivors and clearly separated from the crew accommodation.

Propulsion for each 47m LOA craft consists of a single 1,325kW main engine driving a fixed pitch propeller through a reverse reduction gearbox. A diesel-electric system for the 300kW retractable azimuthing bow thruster is provided as a secondary propulsion system and for standby operations.

The propulsion concept is optimised for fuel consumption by enabling one genset to take the full hotel load and restricted bow thruster load, with still sufficient capacity for station keeping in standby operations in fair to moderate weather conditions.

The vessels will be built by Damen Shipyards Group member Maaskant Shipyards of Stellendam in the Netherlands, with the hulls following a proven Damen concept of being built in Poland.

MJInformation No: 21976