The Northern-Ireland Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (DARD) 25.9m Baltic Workboats-designed and built fisheries patrol vessel Banrion Uladh has achieved outstanding performance on recent sea trials.
Designed to perform fisheries inspection duties and marine surveys, during recent sea trials the vessel achieved a maximum speed 26.5 knots, which is well above the contract requirement.
Baltic Workboats continually seeks improvements in hull efficiency to achieve an optimum balance between comfort, speed and efficiency over the required loading conditions and manoeuvrability.
Noise level inside the wheelhouse of the vessel has been arranged to achieve 56dB while making full speed – the company says that this is absolutely the lowest noise level ever achieved on this sized high-speed craft.
The vessel is powered by two 900kW, MTU 10V2000 M72 engines driving five blade FPP propellers.
The Banrion Uladh’s aluminium design is based on Baltic Workboats’ successful 24m Baltic 2400 platform, which has been successfully operating in Poland, Estonia and Latvia since 2008.
The aft deck features slipway with two 60hp RIB boats, 2t hydraulic Gantry and 1t Guerra deck crane.
The wheelhouse is separated into two working premises. At the aft end of the wheelhouse there is a hydrological laboratory with three workstations. At the forward end of the wheelhouse is a navigation bridge and additional work station.
To give the vessel diverse operation possibilities, the port side features a dismountable echo sounder girder and a pot hauler has been installed. The vessel is able to accommodate seven crew members in three twin cabins and a single cabin for the captain.
The vessel was delivered to DARD at the beginning of December.
Vessel specifications
Length overall – 25.9m
Length waterline – 22.5m
Beam – 5.9m
Depth moulded – 3.05m
Draft – 1.47m
Crew – 2
Accommodation – 7
Fuel – 6000l
Engine – 2 x MTU 10V2000 M72
Gearbox – 2 x ZF 2050 A
Speed – 26 knots
Classification – MCA SCV Category 2
