Fast daughtercraft design
Dutch Special Marine Group has designed a small range of Fast Daughter Craft (FDC). A FDC’s function is to operate away from the mother ship or offshore installations for extended periods of time. The primary function is to search for and rescue persons lost at sea.
Effective search and recovery require a Fast Daughter Craft with excellent reliability, manoeuvrability and sea keeping abilities. In order guarantee this Dutch Special Marine Group’s designer, Pieter Meuzelaar, took the proven hull of the company’s Fast Rescue Craft 903 (as used by the KNRM – Dutch national rescue organisation) and enlarged the beam and reshaped the bow area to obtain more bow height.
The FDC’s are built by Habbeké Shipyard of seawater resistant Aluminium (5083- H111), the hull is a fully planing, deep V type and the vessels have a low freeboard aft to facilitate rescue operations, are self-bailing, have sufficient deck space to transport two stretchers, are self-righting, have a robust foam fender and are supplied with diesel inboard engines with water jet propulsion units. The Henriksen singe-lift hook system allows the vessels to be launched from a mother ship even in heavy seas.
By Jake Frith
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