Rolls-Royce Gets Icelandic Coast Guard Contract

Rolls-Royce has won a contract to supply the design and a full equipment package for a multi purpose coastguard vessel to be built by ASMAR in Chile for the government of Iceland.

On completion in 2009 the vessel will perform a variety of tasks, including coastguard duties and management of Iceland’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), fishery control, standby and rescue, emergency towing, pollution prevention, oil recovery and firefighting.

To meet Iceland’s requirements, UT-Design in Rolls-Royce has developed the UT 512 L. The starting point was the Norwegian coastguard vessel KV Harstad, type UT 512, built for a Norwegian shipowner and chartered to Kystvakt . This ship has proved very successful since it entered service at the beginning of 2005, and carries out duties comparable to those planned by Landhelgisgæsla Islands (The Icelandic Coastguard) for its new ship.

However, although the Norwegian vessel was the starting point, the Icelandic one is substantially different. At 93.65m long it is about ten metres longer, and broader, at 16m beam. The hull lines have also been revised to allow for the higher speed requirement of more than 19 knots. The result is an easily propelled hull with bulb bow, a long forecastle, a foredeck gun turret, a large wheelhouse set well back, and a working deck aft. There will be accommodation for 48 people in single and two-berth cabins. Rolls-Royce is to supply a package of equipment and systems. Two Bergen main engines each rated at 4,500kW will provide the power in a twin screw arrangement with shaft generators on the main gearboxes and CP propellers. In view of the high speed requirement, open water propellers have been specified, but even so the bollard pull will be about 100 tonnes. A Rolls-Royce dyanamic positioning system will meet IMO DP1 standard, working in conjunction with a Poscon joystick system controlling the engines, CP propellers, high-lift flap rudders with independent steering gears and the four thrusters. Two 450kW tunnel thrusters will be mounted at the bow, together with an 883kW swing-up azimuth thruster. A third tunnel thruster will be installed in the stern skeg.

The propulsion system is designed to provide a high level of redundancy and good maneuverability. The machinery can be run in several modes, reducing the amount of energy required to satisfy the vessel’s many operating profiles and so minimising the environmental footprint.

Increased tanker traffic, particularly northwest Russia to USA, along environmentally-sensitive coastlines is one driving force behind Iceland’s investment in a large new coastguard vessel. The UT 512 L will therefore have a bollard pull of about 100 tons, so that in an emergency it can tow stricken tankers of up to about 200,000 tonnes deadweight. It will also have tank capacity for recovered oil and a full outfit of oil booms and skimmers.

Iceland has a fleet of three coastguard vessels at present, Tyr, Ægir and Odin. These are well-respected but are now very old. The new UT512 L will replace Odin and provide a much increased capability. The new ship will have a large operating area in a region with challenging weather conditions. Rolls-Royce has drawn on long experience with more than 500 UT-Design offshore vessels to offer a ship providing a safe and effective platform for operations in all weathers.