New boats swell Germany’s sea rescue clout

Due into service at the turn of the year with the German Maritime Search and Rescue Association (DGzRS) is SK41, the fifth in a series of six redesigned 27.9m x 6.2m sea cruisers.

Built by specialist Fassmer Werft , SK41’s propulsion comprises two MTU 16V 2000 M72 main engines of 2,880kW developing 24 knots over fixed propellers.The boat has ZF DF reverse gearing and a 75kW bow thruster.

Like its predecessors, SK41 draws 1.95m, carries a crew of four and is self-righting. The multi-functional boat also has state-of- the-art firefighting and medical equipment. It carries an 8.2m tender with an automatic launch system, also built by Fassmer and driven by a 170kW Steyr SE 236 E40 marine diesel.

The latest 28m Class newbuild is being followed in autumn 2021 by sister SK42. Currently the last on order in the latest series of 28m Class cruisers, SK 42 is also being built at Fassmer. Unusually for the DGzRS – but yet like SK40 Hamburg named earlier this year – SK42’s name is already known: Nis Randers.

SK40 Hamburg entered service in April. Naming was originally planned in the German port city but scrapped because of COVID 19. Instead the boat went straight to work and saw impressive rescue action as SK40 before being officially named in a small ceremony in Bremen in July.

Elsewhere smaller boats point up the ever-increasing specialist demands being placed on the volunteer German sea rescue fleet along a nearly 2,400km North Sea and Baltic coastline between Holland and Poland.

LIGHTWEIGHT RBBS
Joining the DGzRS soon is SRB 82, an 8.9m x 3.10m fast, lightweight polyethylene RBB, built at Finnish yard Arctic Airboats. It’s for service on the Schlei, a 42kms shallow bay and swamp inlet between the Baltic and Schleswig north of Kiel.

The DGzRS already has three robust RBBs in operation. Drawing just 0.88m and of 38 knots they are propelled by Yamaha FL200g and F200G outboards, each of about 150kW.

The latest RBB – SRB 81 Eva Ahrens-Thies – entered service in August on the Stettin Lagoon in the Oder Estuary on the border between Germany and Poland. The unusual lagoon covers nearly 700km² and has a mean depth of 3.8m. A further, identical RBB is due into service mid 2021 as SRB 83. It will serve out of Prerov, a Baltic national park and sea resort area.

The latest newbuild in a DGzRS fleet of about 60 cruisers and rescue boats is SRB 78 Otto Diersch. That 9.5-10.1m Class boat was named in Bremen in October and is now working on the German Bight. The class is one of the service’s biggest with over 30 boats now in operation.

Otto Diersch was built by Tamsen Maritim shipyard in Rostock and sailed along the coast – and presumably through the Kiel Canal – by volunteers. The 10.1m x 3.61m newbuild draws 0.96m and has a Cummins 6BTA 5.9 M 235kW main engine, reduction gearing and a fixed propeller. It develops 18 knots.

TAMSEN NEWBUILD
As this report was being completed DGzRS spokesman Ralf Baur told Maritime Journal that another newbuild – SRB 80 – was undergoing sea trials and final outfitting at Tamsen. It is the last in the current series of 9.5/10.1m Class newbuilds and is planned for service out of Travemünde at the end of the year, he said.

New DGzRS acquisitions don’t end there. As well as the already mentioned sixth 28m Class cruiser, another impressive newbuild will join the service in 2021.

It is the service’s first training boat and it is taking shape at the inland shipyard of Hermann Barthel on the Elbe – another first. The newbuild will be of about 22m but no further details have yet been revealed.

By Tom Todd