Page 28: of Marine News Magazine (July 2011)

28MNJuly 2011a problem because we had to replace the reduction gears. Thats when we brought in Incat,? Sommerfeld said, the naval architecture and design firm that originally designed the KlondikeExpress. Incat Crowther was commis- sioned to study the issue and recom- mend the best solution to the vessels propulsion problem. Brett Crowther, Managing Director at Incat Crowther said, We looked at the possibility of rebuilding the exist- ing engines. We looked at a bunch of engine options from MTU and Caterpillar in terms of the existingwaterjet impeller thats in the boat, the gear box, and what modifications were required to actually fit the engine onto the existing engine basestructure. We had to look at all those things to come up with a recommen- dation.?Crowther said they understood that accessibility of local maintenance wasa big factor in the operators decision. Being in Alaska and being fairly remote, youre somewhat limited in the support you can get for your machinery. So we really only looked at two options seriously,? Crowther said. We looked at alternate MTU engines and we also looked at Caterpillar engines. Those were the preferred brands of the operator because they felt they could get theservice they needed in their location. And those brands have engines that are suitable for the job in terms of horsepower and physical size.? Sommerfeld agreed that both Caterpillar and MTU enginesmatched approximately the horse power to weight ratio and engine room space requirements. Incats final recommendation, to refit the Klondike with a pair of MTU 16V4000 M63L engines, wasaccepted and the work was completed at Seward Ships Drydock in Seward Alaska over the course of this past winter. Incat Crowthers recommen- dations also included replacing the gearboxes with new units consisting of a revised output ratio. The original ZF BU755 boxes were replaced with current model ZF 7650NR units with a custom ratio. The custom ratio allowed better matching of the jet to the engine output without the needfor propulsion changes or major Office: 337-237-5011 Email: [email protected] Web: www.aheadtank.com New IMO and USCG CertifiedType II Sewage Treatment Plant ? Compact? Lightweight? Corrosion Resistant ? Odor Free ? Simple Installation? Easy Maintenance? Customer Friendly ? Cost Effective Brett Crowther, Managing Director at Incat Crowther