2019 saw a busy year for CRC especially when it came to providing guard boats for various projects across the UK and northern Europe.
As the name suggests, the vessels primary role is to guard a specific area, worksite or vessel. A good case study that can be taken from this season is that of the interconnector cable between the UK and France, the IFA2.
UK based shore side construction of the IFA2 cable commenced in late April 2019. As the project progressed throughout the height of the summer, large cable lay barges, tugs, mulitcats, survey vessels and dive support vessels were all working in close proximity to a very popular beach. Located on the northern shores of the Solent, between Southampton and Portsmouth it was always going to be a very busy worksite.
It is well known that the Solent is the UKs busiest stretch of water and during the summer, one of the most congested in the world. Thousands of recreational sailors descend when conditions are favourable, couple this to all the commercial fishing vessels and industrial shipping movements, it certainly makes for a lot of vessels to keep out of harm’s way around the worksite!
For the IFA2 project, Commercial Rib Charter provided 6 dedicated guard boats operating 24 hours a day.
- 2 x Open RIBs were tasked with near shore guard duties keeping; swimmers, wind surfers, kite surfers, dinghy sailors and jet skis all outside the exclusion zone. It’s thought that the jet skis, wind surfers and kite surfers are most at risk, as they have the capability to travel over 25kts and very rarely carry any communications equipment, which can make things difficult for the guard boat when trying to attract attention. For this reason we fit all our guard boats with conspicuous branding and class 1 LED blue strobe lights.
- 2 x 9m Cabin RIBs patrolled the mid distance area of the worksite usually encountering sailing vessels and the occasional recreational angling vessel.
- 2 x 15m Cabin RIBs tasked with detecting the long range targets were positioned well outside the exclusions zone. This would ensure they had ample time to detect an incoming vessel and ensure that any larger vessels with limited maneuverability had plenty of time and space to alter course.
So why were CRC chosen to carry out the guard duties?
It’s well known that CRC own the UKs largest fleet of commercially coded open and cabin RIBs. Being based just a few miles from the work site was a definite bonus for the client, our local knowledge of the Solent certainly played in to their hands, keeping them informed of any busy periods expected on the water enabled them to plan their works accordingly.
How can CRCs Guard boats assist with your project?
All our Cabin RIBs are fitted with AIS, radar, loud hailers, and class 1 LED blue strobe lights making them the perfect tool for such a job. Our crews area fully qualified and all hugely experience in this field, CRC fully understand the importance of maintaining good relationships with the local community in order to keep the project flowing smoothly without any undue objections, you will always find our skippers and deckhands are courteous and polite day or night!
For more information on CRC’s Guard Boats click here, or call our team on 01590 607103
