Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2012)

10Maritime Reporter & Engineering News PROFILEVESSEL OF THE MONTH Sea Scout All American Steps Up The Game with Research Vessel By Alan Haig-Brown At 134-feet (40.8 meters) in length theresearch vessel Sea Scout is the largest catamaran built by All American Marine in Bellingham, Washington and the largest vessel designed by Nic deWaals Teknicraft Design of Auckland New Zealand. With its length and 37-foot 4- inch beam, this is not only a large vessel it is, as C&C Technologies Survey Serv- ices newest vessel, a highly sophisticated and complex craft. A vessel such of this has a dual person- ality. The first being a crewed vessel de- signed to get from place to place in anefficient manner. The second is to support a team of technicians with specific goals. As a purpose-designed craft, the SeaScout has some interesting innovations. A large clear after deck is fitted out to take C&Cs custom built containers for storage and operation of their au-tonomous underwater vehicle (Konsberg Hugin AUV CSIV). A large stern gantry (14,000 pounds, 16-foot swing and 8-feetclear over stern) and smaller side gantry are designed to facilitate the deployment of the AUV and other instruments. A Morgan Marine Crane is mounted star- board-side and is capable of lifting 4,158pounds at a 36.75-foot extension. Deck equipment also includes a side scan sonarwinch (Klein 5000), a coring winch (pis-ton & box), and a CTD winch with water sampling rosette. With four propulsion engines, the Sea Scout can make 28 knots and cruise economically at 20 knots. This is great for getting to and from jobs in theoffshore oil and gas industry but for much of the time the boat will be work- ing at speeds under ten knots. To meet these variables, the boat has a 1600 HP 32C ACERT and a 553 HP C18 ACERT Caterpillar engine in each hull. Each en-gine turns a prop so that for commuter- speeds all four engines can be employed while for slow speed survey work the two small engines will do the job with signif-icant fuel savings. Fitting multiple engines into the narrow twin hulls of catamarans always presents challenges. The designers of the Sea Scout have an elegant solution. The larger engines are set forward in each hull with an ultra-light weight carbon fiber shaft running aft from the ZF 3055A gears(2.25:1) to the propellers. A generator set is mounted laterally across the hull justaft of the big engine on an elevated plat- form. At a lower level and aft of that, the smaller engine is mounted with a carbonfiber shaft running forward to a ZF550 V- drive gear mounted in space under the gen set in such a way that the propulsion shaft can pass back under the engine toits propeller. A shaft brake is mounted on the tail shaft to lock up the propellerwhen not in use. ZF provided all compo- Name.............................................................Sea Scout Owner...........................................C & C Technologies Designer....................................Teknicraft Design Ltd. Builder...........................All American Marine (AAM) Length.................................................................134 ft. Breadth.................................................................37 ft. Main engines..........................................4 x Caterpillar Gears........................................................................ZF HiPAP..........................................................Kongsberg AUV............................................................Kongsberg Speed...............................................................28 knots Cruising Speed................................................20 knots Fuel capacity...............................................11,000 gal. Berths........................................................................26 Class......................................................................ABS AUV............................................................Kongsberg Side Scan Sonar..........................................Klein 5000 Chief Engineer David Wright in one of this two identical engine rooms. Sea Scout is an innovative Quad-Prop? Survey Vessel for C & C. Captain Jeramie Rivette at thehelm of the Sea Scout.