VESSEL REPORT Emergency Response Vessels On Call

Emergency response vessels have many responsibilities.

By Ken Hocke, Senior Editor

What’s the difference between an emergency response vessel (ERV) and a patrol boat?

Patrol boats do exactly what their name suggests — they patrol. They are designed to keep bad things from happening, acting as a deterrent. ERVs answer emergency calls, including re ghting. They don’t keep bad actors from doing what they do.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, scores of small patrol and emergency response craft were built throughout the U.S., many of which were partially or mostly funded by the federal government. Metropolitan areas which previously could not afford to build a new patrol boat or ERV suddenly had the money.

And shipyards that could build these vessels suddenly saw that part of their businesses grow exponentially.

Over the past 20 years, boats that can handle both patrol and emergency response missions have become more proli c in ports and on waterways across the U.S.

Multimission

These crossover boats can be one-offs or multiple boat eet enhancements.

WorkBoat’s Boat of the Year in 2022 is a prime example of a multimission boat. Late last year, MetalCraft Marine delivered the 85'×26'×12' aluminum firefighting, rescue, patrol boat Monjed 2 to the Kuwait Fire Force.

Because of the uniqueness of the boat’s operational location, MetalCraft started looking at outside designs that were used in severe sea state conditions that could still make good speeds and carry heavy loads.

The boat’s design, based on MetalCraft’s FireStorm model, has very tall hulls that are wide enough to house large diesels and lots of reghting equipment.

The Monjed 2 features two Jason re pumps, spewing 5,000 gpm each through telescopic monitors that extend 40’ above the deck.

“MetalCraft started on preliminary designs back in early 2015. Several concepts did not y due to the instability of shooting 12,000 gpm from 45 feet above the water,” Bob Clark, MetalCraft partner and contracts manager said at the 2022 International WorkBoat Show in December. “Even a catamaran design would need to be very large and very heavy with a super low center of gravity to support the force of 12,000 gpm from the tower monitors. The boat would also need to handle severe seas if a re occurred during a storm event. MetalCraft started looking at outside designs that were designed around severe sea states that could make good speeds and carry heavy loads. This led us to the wind-farm boats of the North Sea.”

Main propulsion comes from two MTU 10V 2000 M86 diesel engines, producing 1,360 hp at 2,450 rpm each. The mains connect to twin MJP DRB 500 waterjets through ZF 665 twospeed marine gears.

In August, Ocean Craft Marine delivered a 23' berglass amphibious rescue boat, employing the shipyard’s high-performance