Home in New Foundland the
on-road rig with its purpose-built
fifth wheel tow and support vehicle
Knave remains very nippy underway
four tanks with 600 port and starboard aft, 260 port and
starboard for'ard, making for a heap of petrol on board,
although the majority of the time it will be only using
the 2 x 600 litre tanks in the aft of the vessel."
The 9m hydrofoil supported catamaran was built
by Bladerunner Boats in Kumeu to a mix of both
Australian 2B and New Zealand maritime safety
standards, both of which are in excess of the Canadian
standard requirements so Knave received her safety
approval on arrival.
This is one chunky work boat weighing in at 5500kg
light ship, add another tonne and half of fuel and water
plus an extra 500kg or so for gear and we are starting to
see some serious displacement, which explains why we
have twin 250hp Yamaha four stroke outboard motors
with 30in legs. The choice of outboards was simple:
mainly to be able to get the best power to weight
ratio, and to keep the working cockpit low and clear.
Outboards also allow for a quicker turn around if one
were to die. Plus the price differential between petrol
and diesel in Canada is minimal, with petrol or gasoline
tracking lower than diesel.
Breather snorkels draw air from inside the transom
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NZ WORKBOAT REVIEW 2013
The transducer arm
locked in the down position
lockers to supply dry, cool air to the two outboards.
A strong, fully fenced boarding platform is mounted
between the motors that not only allows ease of access
for servicing and running repairs, it doubles for diver
recovery, and for when working astern.
From the cockpit, the davit and side-scan sonar
transducer pod dominate the starboard side. The sonar
transducer pod is a masterpiece of engineering, able to
be easily moved from stowed, to deployed position by
one man. It also doubles as a normal lifting davit for
bottom sampling and the like. Once the transducer pod
is deployed it is securely locked into a supporting bracket
and clamped on the lower belting, meaning the vessel
can operate at survey speeds of up to 12 knots.
The primary survey tool is an R2sonic multi-beam
connected to an Applanix wave master POSMV system.
This provides heading and position, yaw, pitch and
roll information. The back up for this is a Trimble
hemisphere DGPS and a Maretron compass that can
supply information to the boat if the equipment had
to be removed for other jobs. The navigation system is
a toughbook computer running MaxSea that interfaces
with a 12 inch Navnet 3D system. There is a Vartech