Belgians convert police boat into survey vessel

The 6.6m beam Sylt, which retains its original name and will fly the flag of Luxembourg, was acquired by GEMS (Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Surveys) from Schleswig Holstein state waterways police in Germany early last year. The vessel was built in 1988 at Germany’s Husumer Schiffswerft.

Frederik Vandierendounck of GEMS in Bruges told MJ the converted Sylt was being deployed for long term nearshore and coastal survey work as well as for wind farm site investigations and port and harbour surveys.

The 146gt vessel draws 1.9m after conversion and continues to be powered by its original two 1200kW Deutz MWM TBD 604 B V12 diesel engines, which propel it to a speed of 21 knots.

Sylt also has a bow thruster for improved manoeuverability, two mobile fire fighting monitors with a water capacity of 1,600 litres/minute and a 900kg capacity HIAB 60 onboard crane. There is also a dinghy for deployment in shallow water.

Sylt has been fitted with a range of additional geophysical and hydrographic survey equipment. Vandierendounck said, ‘One of the main technical changes made to Sylt is that the boat is now equipped with a hull mounted Simrad Multibeam.’ That unit is a Simrad EM3002 and along with its multibeam capability the boat is also equipped with single beam and sidescan sonar survey equipment.

The navigation equipment includes Furuno Shipmate RS 4000 positioning radar, chart plotter, autopilot, gyro compass and echo sounder as well as RTK survey positioning. Sylt accommodates seven. It is restricted to operations within 50 miles of the coast and has a five day endurance capability.

By Tom Todd