Unique new rescue craft for German service

The keel of the 25 knot, 36.45m long and 7.8m wide cruiser, provisionally named SK 32, was laid in December 2010. Drawing 2.12m, she will enter service out of Sassnitz on Rügen in 2012 after completion at the Fassmer Shipyard.

SK 32 will replace the 34-year-old 44.2m rescue cruiser veteran Wilhelm Kaisen, the future of which was still under debate as 2010 closed. Several ex-DGzRS vessels have already found useful service elsewhere in Europe after retirement and it seemed likely that a similar home would be found for Wilhelm Kaisen.

SK 32 is part of a DGzRS fleet modernisation programme designed to meet expected future increases in Baltic traffic. She is the only 36m boat to be built so far for the service, but leading DGzRS engineer Holger Freese told The Motorship it was possible that a second boat of this class could be built later.

He said current plans were to equip the first boat with grid-cooled MTU 8V 4000 M70 main engines on each side, each rated 1,160kW at 2,000 rpm, operating fixed-pitch propellers over Reintjes two-speed gears of type ZWVS 730. In addition, there would be a centrally-placed sea-water cooled MTU 16V 4000 M71 engine of 2,465kW at 2,000 rpm, Freese said. That unit would operate through a Reintjes reverse gear unit type WVS 1540 with PTO onto a fixed-pitch prop.

He said SK 32 would also have two auxiliary Diesels. One would be a Deutz Type BF 6M 1013M of 122kW at 1,800 rpm – with a Leroy Somer generator type LSAM 44.2 VS3 of 88 kVA or a hydraulic pump unit for a 120kW bow thruster. The other would be a Deutz BF 4M 1013M unit of 77kW at 1,500 rpm, also with a Leroy Somer generator type LSAM 44.2 VS3 of 88 kVA.

Freese said SK 32 would carry a 2 ton on-board crane with a 4m outreach and boast a helipad, a 15 ton tow hook, a 12 ton cable towing windlass and a hospital.