Spain gets new coast guard vessel
21 Feb 2007
The first of two coastal protection vessels has been delivered to Spain?s Maritime Safety Authority SASEMAR. The main role for 220-ton bollard pull ?Don Inda? is emergency towing of a tanker, for which it is also equipped with a full range of equipment for recovering spilled oil. Rolls-Royce developed the modified UT 722 L design and provided the main equipment. Astilleros Zamakona, based at Santurce, near Bilbao, built the vessels.
The SASEMAR vessels have a large installed power and very powerful towing winches, but are flexible enough to take on many other roles including pollution clean-up, escort towing, rescue of ships and their crews, emergency co-ordination, fire-fighting and salvage. ?Don Inda? is 80 m long, with a beam of 18 m and a draft of up to 6.8 m. Hull depth to main deck is 8.25 m, considerably larger than the normal UT 722 L. An important feature is the large tank capacity for recovered oil of approximately 1,730 cu. m. The installation of an oil/water separation system is designed to enhance this capacity further. The recovered oil tanks will be filled with about 95% oil and five percent water, the separator discharging water with a cleanliness meeting environmental regulations back to the sea, whereas normally oilrec tanks would contain a mixture of about 50/50 oil and water. Because the recovered oil may have a high viscosity, the tanks are heated, enabling oil to subsequently be pumped to another vessel or ashore. This feature means that the SASEMAR vessels can act as pumping stations in the event of a massive oil spill.
The SASEMAR vessels have a large installed power and very powerful towing winches, but are flexible enough to take on many other roles including pollution clean-up, escort towing, rescue of ships and their crews, emergency co-ordination, fire-fighting and salvage. ?Don Inda? is 80 m long, with a beam of 18 m and a draft of up to 6.8 m. Hull depth to main deck is 8.25 m, considerably larger than the normal UT 722 L. An important feature is the large tank capacity for recovered oil of approximately 1,730 cu. m. The installation of an oil/water separation system is designed to enhance this capacity further. The recovered oil tanks will be filled with about 95% oil and five percent water, the separator discharging water with a cleanliness meeting environmental regulations back to the sea, whereas normally oilrec tanks would contain a mixture of about 50/50 oil and water. Because the recovered oil may have a high viscosity, the tanks are heated, enabling oil to subsequently be pumped to another vessel or ashore. This feature means that the SASEMAR vessels can act as pumping stations in the event of a massive oil spill.
