Danish boat tackles RMD Canal work

The versatile 35m long and 9.5m wide boat cost €2.4m and was built for German authorities at Denmark’s Faaborg Shipyard for service with the Wasser und Schiffahrtsamt (WSA) Nürnberg. The vessel is already at work out of Neuses on the Bamberg-Nuremberg stretch of the busy 171 km long canal, which was completed in 1992 and links the Rhine and Danube rivers.

Hecht copes with a variety of canal and waterway construction and renovation tasks both in the canal’s locks and in open stretches. The work includes thinning out bank undergrowth, inspecting depths and bridges, laying ship markers and searching for obstacles. It also serves as a work platform and push boat, transporting building materials and equipment.

Drawing just 90cm, the vessel has an adjustable, hinged 60 ton capacity bow ramp for heavy equipment and vehicles and boasts two telescopic spud stability supports to 7m depth. WSA Nuremberg official Jörg Blömer reported that it also carries a tracked Sennebogen materials handling unit, Model 825 with an hydraulic elevating cab and an outreach of a maximum 14m. The unit is driven by a 129kW Cummins engine.

Capable of operation in all weathers, Hecht is driven by two SISU 6 cylinder Series 230 kW diesel engines and propelled by two stern mounted Type SRP 0320 Schottel rudder propellers, each of 200 kW at 1,800 rpm. Installed at the bow is a Type SPJ 22 Schottel Pump-Jet auxiliary unit of 55kW at 1,700 rpm. Schottel told MJ the SPJ was particularly suited for shallow water operation and could also be used on vessels with very shallow draught.

Other equipment on Hecht includes a Hatz 135kW SISU driven generator and a 25kW auxiliary generator, also from Hatz.

By Tom Todd