Interestingly, while the French company is delivering its fendering to no less than 11 boats for the Danish authorities, the order for three 17m pilot boats for Liverpool, operated by Briggs Marine, was probably one of their most prestigious.
“We supplied our cylindrical strapped fendering with lower belting for the ORC Fast Pilot vessels,” said Christophe Brevière of Ocean 3. “Our system is very light, that helps both speed and fuel efficiency.”
However, they added these pilot boats also wanted to be able to make contact with the bow of the vessel, adding flexibility to operations.
This required shaping the bow fender: the 400mm profile on the sides of the boat had to sweep into a 600mm larger pad fitting snugly over the bow. To get it right, close collaboration with shipyard Goodchild Marine was necessary: “The yard helped us by providing a physical template,” Brevière explained.
Briggs Marine in Liverpool will soon have 3 of these ORC 17m pilot boats sporting Ocean 3’s tailored fenders, Kittiwake, Razorbill and Petrel.
However, the company supplies more than just boat fenders and during the beginning of year, one of their largest orders has been for the manufacture and supply of floating foam filled fenders for the Port of Dublin in Ireland.
This new multipurpose quay facility is seeing a rise in cruise, especially during the summer months, but the port needed fenders to berths to make these big visitors welcome.
After Ocean 3 won the contract at the very start of the year, the race was on to manufacture no less than 24 fenders, each 2.5m in diameter by 6m long.
Most needed to be on site for the arrival of the first cruise ships: “In fact, at top production pace we managed four per week,” said Brevière. “Two on each truck – 12 trucks in all… It became a continuous flow of manufacture and delivery.”
The effort paid off: the fenders were in place for the arrival of the first cruise vessels in mid-April.
Visit Ocean 3 at Seawork International 2018 on stand PO45.
