Robert Allan Ltd. has announced that two 3,500 tonne oil spill response barges, Sentinel 303 and Sentinel 304, were recently completed at ASL Shipyard in Singapore. WCMRC will receive delivery of the barges in October, with arrival in Canada by the end of 2022.
The response barges will join WCMRC’s fleet of pollution response vessels stationed along the south coast of British Columbia. These new additions represent a significant enhancement to the pollution response capabilities already in place and will benefit the entire local maritime industry.
Key particulars of the response barges are:
Length, overall: 76.0 m
Beam, moulded: 20.0 m
Depth, least moulded: 6.4 m
Maximum draft (navigational): 4.6 m
Gross Tonnage: 2822
The response barges were constructed to ABS rules with the following notation:
✠ A1 OIL SPILL RECOVERY BARGE (OSR-S2), UWILD, UNRESTRICTED SERVICE
Tank capacities of the response barges are:
Recovered oil: 3,785 m3
Fuel oil: 125 m3
Potable water: 150 m3
Sewage tank: 100 m3
Grey water: 100 m3
Accommodations are outfitted to high, MLC compliant standards for a crew of up to 20 personnel. The ten double crew cabins are located on the accommodation deck with, the galley, mess/lounge, and office/control room located on the fo’c’sle deck.
The electrical plant comprises four (4) identical Caterpillar C4.4 diesel gensets each with a power output of 118 ekW.
The aft deck is the main working deck and contains all the oil spill response equipment. The spill containment systems consist of four unsheltered booms stored in containers with hydraulic reels, Current Buster No. 4 and Current Buster No. 6 stored in a single container with hydraulic reels, and four containers of general-purpose boom. There is ample storage for absorbents, mission-specific containers, general equipment, decontamination gear, dry storage, and a containerized workspace.
Two small vessel docks are stored onboard and can be deployed on port and starboard sides to allow other response vessel crews to embark/disembark to/from the response barges and facilitates the transfer of recovered oil from the response vessels to the response barge. A Desmi Terminator skimmer and hose reel allows the response barges to recover oil floating on the surface. Two mini storage barges are stowed on deck and can be deployed in the field to aid in the response.
A Norcrane fixed-boom crane with a SWL of 9 tonnes at 19 metres is fitted aft to handle the above-mentioned oil spill response gear and hoses.