The Swedish Sea Rescue Society have installed Scania''s new 16-litre V8 engine in their new rescue vessel.
The Swedish Sea Rescue Society (Svenska Sällskapet för Räddning af Skeppsbrutne, SSRS) is a non-governmental voluntary national institution and the only organization in Sweden with the sole mission to save lives at sea.
The SSRS currenty have 92 life-boats deployed at 51 different stations along the Swedish coast and in the three big lakes of Vänern, Vättern and Mälaren.
The newest addition to the fleet is a 20-metre self-righting fast rescue cruiser named 'Gad Rausing'. A generous donation from Tetra Laval made it possible for SSRS to build the rescue cruiser.
The 'Gad Rausing' will be able to act as a floating 'safe haven' on the scene of an ac-cident and can also be used as the on-scene commander's platform in case of a major accident.
The vessel has the same high degree of manoeuvrability at all levels of speed as the smaller rescue boat. Most important of all, the new fast rescue cruiser is able to take more people onboard in case of an accident.
36.7 knots
The high-speed performance in rough waters is increased compared to the smaller units and the ergonomic design criteria for the crew's working conditions have been exceeded by a wide margin.
The maximum speed achieved during the performance tests was 36.7 knots and the cruising speed was 32.0 knots.
This gives an operational range of 10 to 15 hours de-pending on speed and prevailing sea conditions.
The propulsion system consists of two Scania DI16 diesel engines (prototype version) rated around 900 hp and two KaMeWa-Rolls Royce water-jets. The rescue service's operational experience with this concept has been very satisfactory.
This is the first installation of Scania's brand-new engine and it has thus been followed with great interest from all involved as well as from competing engine manufacturers.
"The preliminary trials of the propulsion system were very satisfying", says Rolf Westerström, Managing Director of SSRS.
"We chose the Scania engines because of their high power output and light weight. And of course the Scania concept which allows fast and easy service of the engines."
The SSRS has also excellent experience of the smaller Scania engines in the 12m res-cue boats and the 16m rescue cruiser, totalling in all 40 Scania engines to date.
