Air supported vessel demonstrator
Danish composite workboat builder Tuco has launched a carbon sandwich Air Supported Vessel (ASV) Soft Motion Demonstrator in collaboration with Effect Ships International AS, of Norway.
The vessel is 18 x 5.2m and fitted out with two small Volvo Penta IPS 600 pod drives (2 x 320kW). With the patented ASV concept the vessel “rides on a cushion of air”, reducing wetted surface area and hull/water resistance to a minimum.
In early testing, the vessel has reached a speed of 37.2 knots (prior to any optimization work). Even more remarkable was the fuel consumption:
At a speed of 25 knots, the total (propulsion and lift fan powering) fuel consumption was only three litres per nautical mile.
Equally impressive was the fuel usage recorded at 30 knots speed – only 3.3 litres/ NM.
Tuco says that following in house debugging and documentation tests, due to start mid-August 2018, the vessel will be presented and demonstrated to the market.
By Jake Frith
