Tampa Yacht Manufacturing Introduces New Twists to Old Concepts

In-House Design Changes are no problem at Tampa Yacht Manufacturing. Whether of internal design and manufacture or tweaking of standard, commercially available off-the-shelf marine equipment, TYM went the extra yard for its customers.

Tempest 36RHIB – Wing Hybrid Collar system with field interchangeability
Built by Tampa Yacht Manufacturing, (TYM), the 36RHIB is the general purpose configuration of their versatile 36 foot platform; a proven design. Additional configurations of the 36RHIB include an Aft Helm Configured Fast Boarding Craft, as well as an Air Droppable variant. The FPC offers enhanced open water performance with a robust propulsion package, and includes key elements to facilitate mother ship interface. The 36RHIB is designed and built to IACS standards for Fast Patrol Vessels.                                             
The vessel also incorporates employs the Wing Collar Assembly for it’s around the boat’s perimeter for impact resistance and deflection during close-quarter maneuvering and shouldering other vessels. As a universal and adaptable hybrid collar this assembly offers many of the advantages of the fully inflated collars without some of the disadvantages. The shape and size of the collar is established primarily by the closed cell polyethylene foam core that makes the collar robust, shock absorbing and non-collapsible. Its polyurethane skin and neoprene rub guard provide excellent abrasion resistance yet soft interface when coming in contact with fixed piers or moving vessels. 
For TYM’s configuration, however, a necessary inherent feature for their boat was the ability to provide field repair and replacement of the collar. Their customized Deck Ring receiver (using commercially available product) incorporates bolt rope extrusions top and bottom which provide attachment points for sliding the collar assembly on and off the boat.   The foam core and sheathing can be installed relatively easily from bow or stern.   Final insertion and inflation of the entrained bladder complete the installation and provide the final tightness for service. Moreover, all parts are standardized and interchangeable among sister-craft. 
TYM’s RHIB Collar is their adaptation of a WING product offering. In a nutshell, the concept works well for the customer, since its characteristics satisfy many of their unique criteria. The Indian Navy asked that it be field repairable and replaceable, and it is. Their troops must be able to repair and replace the boat’s collars with minimal tools and maximum efficiency and without down time to a service center.  TYM shop riggers install the collars on the floor with soap and rope in a matter of hours, and without special tools. TYM accommodated the unusual request by carefully installing and aligning the installation tracks on every boat to facilitate simple, repeatable, trouble-free extraction of old collars and introduction of replacement collars.
Non-deflatable, puncture resistant, and repairable in the field, the profile of the collar is not dependent on the bladder and to some degree the cross-section may be tailored to fit the vessel. The new 36RHIB has recently undergone sea trials for the Indian Navy.

Tempest 50FPC – Versatile Bow Door deployment
Also built by TYM, the 50FPC is the Force Protection configuration of the versatile 50 foot platform based on the Tempest 60. Sister craft to TYM’s 50FAC, soon to be in service patrolling the border waters of India, the FPC offers enhanced open water performance with a robust propulsion package, and includes key elements to facilitate mother ship interface.
A unique but key feature of the Tempest 50FPC is a Bow Landing Ramp for quick troop disembarkation and/or recovery.  Designed for shallow draft operations, the craft is ideal for Patrol and Surveillance in coastal and riverine waters. And, that’s where the TYM specially designed Bow Ramp comes into play. Particularly handy for the insertion/extraction of SOF teams into hostile/denied littoral/coastal areas, the vessel can operate at speed in waters less than 2 meters deep.
The 50 Bow Door is Tampa Yacht’s design and unique to their boat. Although other firms also builders produce bow doors, no others have the distinct features of vertical personnel mobility, both up and down, which the TYM unit provides.
The 50 Bow Door (design and execution) is unique and innovative in the industry. The craft is fitted with a one meter wide stainless steel clad Bow Landing Door for ingress and egress directly to shore from the bow of the craft, and for water level deployment/recovery of swimmers, ROVs, etc. The robustly built arrangement, fitted with integral stairs, is simply extended and retrieved manually for rugged durability. Dogs lock the ramp to the bow when not in use, and allow the ramp to be secured to the interior of the vessel. In the stowed and locked position, the Bow Landing Door provides vertical egress in boarding operations and at pierside.

Innovation, Adaptation and Unique Design
One way to keep the customers coming back is to be able to adjust quickly to customer requirements. TYM’s unique bow door and the adaptation of a commercially available collar product do just that. Foreign customers, more and more, are sourcing U.S. yards for their newbuild needs. This involves competitive pricing, of course, but more importantly, quality service and products. TYM, like other smaller workboat shipyards, today exports a fair portion of its output to customers outside of North America. That’s one way to keep a strong shipbuilding environment intact. In this case, solid design work trumps all other variables, too.
 

(As published in the October 2013 edition of Marine News - www.marinelink.com)