Superfast lifeboats
Article translated from NRK-Østfold
Updated 11.01.2005
The Norwegian Lifeboat Institution is heading for quite a revolution. The current generation of lifeboats is to be replaced. If all goes according to plan, new vessels that are twice as fast and capable of manoeuvring in shallow water will be in service next year.
By Rune Fredriksen
Nanki Bergersen-class lifeboats such as “Odd Fellow” and “Odd Fellow II” are to be replaced by new vessels equipped with water-jet drives.
Svein Jarle Hambre, director of the Norwegian Maritime Directorate says that tank tests have just been successfully completed at MARINTEK in Trondheim. The first boat could be handed over in 2006.
New stations
At least twice as fast, and capable of tackling extremely shallow waters - these will be the main differences when today’s Nanki Bergersen class is replaced by water-jet boats. The new design has yet to be built, so neither sketches nor complete drawings are available.
Tests have shown that the new vessel will not produce much of a wash even at high speed. On the bridge of MARINTEK’s Ocean Basin in Trondheim stand naval architect Tor Stokke of Amble & Stokke AS and maritime director Svein Jarle Hambre.
Photo: Ingar Bie, Norwegian Lifeboat Institution
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“These boats will be able to enter shallow waters, but will also be capable of operating in the Oslo Fjord where there is a great deal of traffic and emergency vessels must not create a large wash”, says rescue inspector Svein Storlien.
A new boat will be stationed at Skjærhallen, and there may be a new station at Oscarsborg.
“This will give us a much more efficient rescue fleet in the Oslo Fjord”, says Storlien.
No longer living on board
The crews of the new boats will not live on board. In order to make the boats as light as possible, the crew accommodation has been removed, which may mean relocating some stations.
The Skjærhallen station will not be affected, but there may be changes further up the Oslo Fjord. However, it is too early to say whether a new station will be built at Oscarsborg, near Moss.
“We are still looking at this possibility”, says maritime director Hambre.
The naval architecture company Amble & Stokke AS will work closely together with the Lifeboat Institution’s experts in drawing up the technical design of the new class of lifeboats.
