Unitor Invests In Two New Workboats For Far East Operation Cruise Ship Sally Albatross

Unitor, Norway's international ship supply company, has invested $700,000 in two purposebuilt workboats for its operations in the Far East, following the successful introduction of a sistership two years ago in Singapore. Designed specifically to meet the requirements of Unitor's equipment supply, the arrival of these two 10-knot vessels allows Unitor to enhance its level of support service to shipowners in the ports of Singapore and Hong Kong, reportedly among the busiest in the world.

The Seacat was delivered to Singapore at the end of January, while its sistership Locator was delivered to Hong Kong in mid-March.

The two new steel-hulled workboats are of the "Ranger Class" of, designed by Australia's Asdmar of Queensland and built by Malaysia's Port Shipyard & Engineering, Port Klang.

Seacat and Locator have a light displacement of 27 tons and a dwt of 20. They are capable of carrying a deck load of 20 tons.

The vessels are designed with the ability to load 15 tons off-center on the aft deck and still be within stability regulations. Propulsion for the 49-foot (15-m) long, 19-foot (5.8-m) wide, fourfoot (1.2-m) draft design (theLocator is 56 feet [17 m] long) is provided by two six-cylinder diesel engines — GMs for the Seacat and Volvos for the Locator — each developing 150 bhp and driving a four-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller. Service speed is 10 knots.

The new workboats have reduced the roundtrip to the furthest point in Singapore's deepwater anchorage to just four hours, half the time it takes one of Singapore's traditional "kwatongs" (bum boats) to make the trip.

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