A major contract will see a Turkish shipyard produce 122 12m fibreglass reinforced plastic and carbon composite boats for the national Coast Guard.

ARES Shipyard vessels

122 vessels will be manufactured within six years by ARES Shipyard. Photo: ARES Shipyard

The vessels manufactured by ARES Shipyard will be 100% domestic and national design and will be delivered within six years. 105 of the produced boats will be allocated to the Coast Guard Command and 17 to the Police General Directorate.

Utku Alanc, CEO of ARES Shipyard, stated: The project is planned to last five years and will involve construction and delivery of 122-ARES 35 FPB boats to meet the needs of the Turkish Coastguard. We will deliver six boats every two months based on our production programme. Thus, one boat will be made ready to launch in only one week. This is something only ARES can achieve.”

He added: "We start our production activities as of August. We will deliver the prototype ship by December 2020.”

The prototype ship will be tested by the Turkish Coast Guard Command teams for 2 months in all territorial waters.

Each of the vessels will be equipped with twin HJX29 waterjets from HamiltonJet controlled by blueARROW. The compact, high-performance reverse duct, and optimised JT steering system offers precise 360-degree manoeuvrability, including at low speeds.

By Rebecca Jeffrey