German rescue service busy with boats
Specific overhaul work was carried out by a local sub-contractor but DGzRS personnel themselves removed and refitted the big engine.
The German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS) has overhauled one of its five 23m rescue cruisers while awaiting a new 35.5m vessel from local yard Fassmer.
As part of a regular revamp of the 23.3m rescue cruiser Vormann Leiss at the organisation’s own repair yard in Bremen, one of the boat’s two MTU BV 396 TC 83 main engines, each of 715kW, was removed for general overhaul.
DGzRS spokesman Christian Stipeldey told MJ that specific overhaul work was carried out by a local sub-contractor but that DGzRS personnel themselves removed and refitted the big engine.
The 5.10m wide Vormann Leiss was built at the Fr. Scheers ship and boat yard in nearby Berne in 1985 and draws 1.4m. Displacing 66t, it has a speed of 20 knots and a range of 1500 sm at 10 knots. Its 7.1m dinghy Erika, also built at Scheers, is powered by a Mercruiser/BMW Diesel D 219 providing 17 knots.
Taking shape at local shipyard Fassmer meanwhile is the latest 36.5m aluminium ocean cruiser for the DGzRS. The deckhouse and helipad on the 7.8m wide 25 knot boat have now been mounted on the completed hull.
Unnamed as yet, the newbuilding SK 32 is due into service early next year out of Sassnitz in the Baltic to replace the cruiser Wilhelm Kaisen, one of two 44m cruisers built in the 1970s. It will have what the DGzRS describes as “an entirely new conceptual design”.
Its 8.7m, 32 knot tender will also be the first of its kind for the DGzRS. The fast, aluminium RIB with a closed deckhouse was developed with Marine Specialized Technology and chosen after tests with a comparable Dutch tender. The Germans said the reasons included speed, manoeuverability, weight, easier access alongside ship, and lower costs compared with other tenders.
By Tom Todd
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