Page 19: of Marine News Magazine (March 2006)

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The Coast Guard knew that stern launched and recoverable RIBs would be an important addition to the mission capa- bilities of the Island Class vessels.

It is well known that this renovation program stopped at only eight vessels because of the deterioration of the hulls.

The last of the eight vessels was delivered in January 2006.

Still the concept of the seven-meter

Short Range Prosecutor (SRP) a stern launched and recoverable RIB had proven successful and will be used on other cutters built in the Deepwater Pro- gram. Zodiac delivered eight SRPs for those 110-ft. cutters that had been mod- ernized.

The Coast Guard's experience with stern-launched RIBs began in 1996 with the development of the 87-ft. Marine Pro- tector Class of patrol Boats. Bollinger built 50 of these vessels, each with a stern deployable and recoverable RIB. Since production began, the RIB on all vessels has been replaced beginning in Novem- ber 2003 with a Zodiac 17-ft. waterjet powered RIB. "While we prefer to be a partners with the design team of the ship, we were able to take the existing slot for the RIB and design a vessel that met the Coast Guard's criteria for a fast stable boat," Marie said. "Naturally we prefer for the customer to give us a problem and let us propose a solution, but sometimes we have to work with a given design."

Bollinger was about to close the pro- duction line for these vessels in 2001 when the 9/11 disaster happened and the

Coast Guard ordered 13 more, all of which have been delivered.

The RIB was 17.62-ft. long with a 7.48-ft. beam when inflated. The vessel had an 11.5-ft. cockpit width with a 4.6- ft. depth. The vessel has a capacity for six persons and has a top speed of at least 33 knots. Power is via a 200 hp Yamar engine driving a Hamilton waterjet. The hull material is aluminum with 40 oz ure- thane tube outer material.

Zodiac delivered four of these RIBs per month to various ports where the patrol boats had been delivered. In less than 14 months, the entire fleet was equipped with the newly designed RIB.

With so few of the Island Class patrol boats being modernized, the Coast Guard had to advance its replacement, the Fast

Response Cutter (FRC). The design con- cept for this vessel with a composite hull has been completed. The 141-ft. vessel will have two 5,080 diesels and travel more than 30 knots with a range of over 5,00 nm.

The new FRC will carry one SRP RIB, launched from the stern, much like the reworked Island class vessels with a 25- ft. length and waterjet propulsion. The sit- uation for RIBs on the National Security

Cutter (421-ft. long) and the slightly smaller Offshore Patrol Cutter (360-ft. long) is more complicated.

Both vessels are designed to deploy and

March, 2006 • MarineNews 19

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USCG

A seven-meter RIB similar to those used in the

New Orleans mission, except there was no center coxswain station.

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