The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft, je
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Loading seedling plants for the Islands orchard Additional grounding plates and bow protection Note the recessed void drains Bow ramp locks Generally, while the layout appears simple, it is interesting to note the amount of thought that has gone into the many features on board. Clearly Alistair Reynolds, who has a number of the slightly smaller Facilitator class barges, has had considerable input into many of the practical design features. The large freeing ports at the stern are a case in point. Alistair remarks that these little barges are remarkably dry and very manoeuvrable even when the breeze gets up and white horses appear. When not working, the barge can be hauled at the end of day for wash down, cleaning, draining of the voids, and general maintenance on her own purpose-built trailer. This sturdy 3.6 tonne tandem axle, galvanised trailer, has been design to cradle the vessel on its fulllength padded runners. The structure of the trailer is such that she can still take an added load and tonnage in case any of the voids take on water. While not designed as a road compliant trailer because of the added width, it is suitable for hauling and transporting the vessel to the workshop for maintenance and repairs, servicing, refuelling and so forth. Twin 150hp four-stroke outboards motors were installed and sea-trialled in Fiji, otherwise the import duty leaps considerably, and it is interesting that this is the only area where Mike has encountered problems. The 110 litre fuel tanks are mounted across the inside of the back bulkhead of the transom. Instrumentation, 48 NZ WORKBOAT REVIEW 2013 spec's Large scuppers hydraulic helm and twin throttles are mounted on the helm console which also incorporates a drop down hatch making a watertight compartment for the limited electronics of VHF and depth sounder on board. The twin 150's that drive the barge have the power to move a good load at reasonable speeds well above her displacement speed. 25 knots is a possible working speed and yet she is very nimble at 35 knots in a light ship mode. Essentially, she is a speedboat with loads up to 5 tonnes. Mike is really happy with the way the barge is working for them: "The barge was originally designed to carry a load at speed of about five tonnes. One night we had a 40ft container of machinery and equipment arrive. It took much longer to load than we expected and we were close to running out of light by the time we left the mainland. That wouldn't have been too much of a problem, except that we had loaded the barge to the gunwales, I think we had about seven tonne on board, it was blowing 25 knots, and very choppy. "We had to go slow, there was so much spray flying around we could hardly see in the gathering dusk, but we got there in one piece and unloaded the entire barge load at night under lights!" "Bruce and the boys at Commando Boats did a fantastic job of building a really good quality product. I understand they are now inundated with orders for similar barge products. The considerable assistance of Alistair Reynolds who was involved in the design of the first of these that Bruce built, and who gave freely of his time and expertise during the design and construction of our slightly bigger version also needs to ■ be acknowledged." Length overall Beam Draft Construction Trailer Designer Builders 10.5m 3.8m .250mm lightship 5083 Marine alloy plate GT Trailers Limited Angelo Lavarnos Commando Boats Limited