Poland’s Maritime Search and Rescue Service has ordered six new SAR vessels to strengthen safety in the Baltic Sea.
The vessels, which will be built by Finnish shipyard Kewatec, will replace the older SAR 1500 series, with two being kept on as reserves during the transition to the new Rescue 1700 vessels.
The new vessels are based on the same design delivered to ICE-SAR in Iceland and to the French Civipol, operating in Mediterranean waters, with enhanced propulsion for greater capability: twin Scania DI16 engines (1000 hp each) paired with Hamilton HTX42 waterjets.
“This upgrade delivers the speed, manoeuvrability and reliability needed to operate in challenging maritime environments,” says Kewatec.
The six Polish vessels will be deployed across six different ports, where they will support a wide range of search and rescue missions in Poland’s waters.
“For Poland’s SAR service, the Rescue 1700 offers the perfect combination of power, endurance, and proven reliability,” said Mika Klapuri, Sales manager. “We are proud to support those whose mission is to save lives at sea – and to continue building on a design that has already shown its value in the harshest conditions.”
While there have been few reports of accidents such as groundings or capsizes in the past few years, several suspected subsea cable sabotage cases have come to light in recent months.
Polish Radio quoted foreign minister Radosław Sikorski as saying the Baltic Sea was the most dangerous sea in the world, and that he was calling for tighter international regulation of commercial shipping, especially vessels operating under so-called flags of convenience or without clear ownership.
“Even if we assume that the cutting of cables and pipelines is accidental, there are simply too many of these incidents,” the radio quoted him as saying.
