35m high speed fireboat
BMT Specialised Ship Design (formally BMT Nigel Gee), a subsidiary of BMT, has delivered a 35 metre aluminium firefighting vessel for Singapore.
The multidisciplinary consultancy has worked closely with the ship’s builders, Penguin Shipyard (Singapore) throughout the tender process to develop a cost-effective design that met Singapore Civil Defence Forces’ full operational requirements. The result is a high-speed craft offering an advanced external fire fighting capability that is above and beyond standard FiFi (Fire Fighting) I class requirements. The multirole vessel is fit for deployment in Chemical / Biological / Radiological (CBR) contaminated area, as well as serving to protect citizens in rescue missions and rapid response aid operations.
BMT’s Principal Naval Architect Sylvain Julien commented: “We’ve worked with Penguin Shipyard previously on a number of vessel designs including high speed crew boats and passenger ferries. This new design, for a governmental organisation, is clear demonstration of our joint ability to deliver on complex and challenging vessel design requirements.”
The firefighting capability is designed to be fully redundant with three monitors and three pumps interconnected with a total discharge flow rate of 3600 m3/h. The vessel is equipped with mission-enabling features such as self-spray protection, foam system, and ability to be used as a pump station to support larger-scale landside operations.
Another safety-critical feature of the vessel is the vessel’s superstructure that has been designed as an airtight citadel to protect those ‘within’ from the potential dangers of CBR agents being released in the atmosphere. The CBR system is provided with 100% redundancy on filtration and air-conditioning equipment. Along with the in-built and fully integrated CBR system, the vessel is fit with a decontamination room and 2 air locks access to the citadel. The vessel’s survivability design aspects are built to protect professional crew and rescued passengers against any such CBR-contamination effects.
Other features include a high-speed RHIB with man-riding launching and recovery, large storage capacity for firefighting equipment and a first aid room. The design also includes a rescued passenger lounge for up to 30 people, together with capacity to accommodate eight firefighters in addition to the crew.
The vessel is powered by a three-engine (MTU 16V4000), three-waterjet (Hamilton H721) configuration providing high operational flexibility and optimum efficiency at speed beyond 30 knots.
Penguin Shipyard is a wholly owned subsidiary of Penguin International Limited, a Singapore-based integrated marine and offshore service provider.
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