Falmouth Harbour is celebrating the arrival of its new £1.6M state-of-the-art pilot boat Atlantic – one of the biggest investments by the Trust Port for almost 20 years.
Holyhead Marine in North Wales has completed its year and a half build of a clean, safe, fuel-efficient pilot vessel to join the Falmouth fleet which operates 24/7, 365 days a year and completes more than 1,000 boardings and landings per year within the Falmouth Harbour Pilotage Area.
Atlantic replaces the 46 year old LK Mitchell which left the port in September, surrounded by a flotilla of well-wishers, bound for a gentler commercial role on the West Coast of Scotland in Campbeltown.
Holyhead won a competitive tender process of top vessel builders around the UK, with a remit to make full use of modern advances in fuel-saving technology, safety and crew welfare and to have the new 16.6m dedicated coded pilot vessel operational in 2024.
“Our Pilot boat crews work throughout the year, in all weathers and conditions, to keep our Harbour open and safe to shipping and they deserve the best equipment we can buy,” says Falmouth Harbour CEO Miles Carden. “We are very excited to welcome Atlantic into our pilot fleet – she will be an incredible asset for the next 20-30 years.
“She will be one of the few Tier 3 compliant pilot vessels operating in the country – with features which help Falmouth Harbour meet our sustainability targets and will run on HVO fuel as soon as her trials are complete.
“Atlantic’s arrival is one of the biggest events for the Harbour for a decade and one of the largest private investments in the Port for a considerable period.”
Atlantic has the Camarc Design refined 16.6m pilot boat hull form which has been developed to improve efficiency, comfort, reduce fuel consumption and enhance seakeeping capability. The vessel is in dedicated Pilot vessel configuration with aft wheelhouse and forward engine room. This gives her a design speed of over 22 knots, a range of over 250 nautical miles, and 30% more efficient than her predecessor the LK Mitchell.
Additional features include:
- The new vessel will run off hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO). We decided that the only way to rapidly reduce emissions associated with diesel powered vessels was to replace diesel with HVO which is up to 90% less carbon intensive. This allows us to reduce current Scope 1 emissions from 139 tones (based on 2022 fuel use) to around 13.9 tonnes per year.
- The vessel is fitted with twin 6 cylinder turbocharged 600hp Scania 13 l diesel 4 stroke IMO complaint Tier III engines giving drastically reduced emissions with up to a 74% cut in NOx emissions and when run on HVO co2 emissions can be reduced up to 90%
- Emissions are reduced via a Tier III SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system, this works by injecting a reducing (AdBlue/urea) into the exhaust system. This injection causes a reaction between the NOx and the agent creating nitrogen and Water.
- Wheelhouse: the vessel has a resilient mounted wheelhouse, that reduces noise levels and increases comfort with modern forward raking bonded windows for added visibility.
- Camarc “Popsure” fender system protects the structure against impact loads. This gives the benefit of no through hull fasteners and reduced stress on the hull. The outer tube takes any abrasion while the modular foam outer spreads any loads over a large area. The modular nature of the fender allows any damaged sections to be easily replaced.
- Future-proofed design allows Falmouth Harbour to consider future propulsion and fuels: the spacious engine compartment gives plenty of working space around the machinery for ease of maintenance and a large removable engine hatch enables the engines to be lifted out of the vessel with minimum effort.
- Atlantic replaces the 46 year old LK Mitchell, a 17.5m Nelson 56 pilot vessel built in 1978 and is now working alongside Arrow, a 16.7m Halmatic built modern pilot vessel built in 2006. Falmouth Harbour’s pilot boat operation run by Falmouth Pilot Services has two, coded, all-weather vessels working in rotation, which is essential to ensure complete coverage of the area and allow for vessel downtime and maintenance.
Falmouth Pilot Services (FPS) are a service arm of Falmouth Harbour Commissioners and Falmouth Harbour is the pilotage authority for the Falmouth Pilotage Area which spans from Black Head to the Dodman including Falmouth Bay, the Helford and Percuil rivers, the Carrick Roads and the River Fal.
“This long-awaited and incredibly important investment represents a very exciting time for us and a statement about our confidence in the future of commercial shipping in our Harbour,” says Miles Carden.
“Atlantic’s construction is a significant step forward in technology, fuel efficiency and sustainability which will modernise Falmouth Harbour’s Pilotage service, securing safe and efficient operations for the future benefit of the Port and its many stakeholders. It will help make us absolutely fit for purpose to realise future opportunities around technologies such as Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW).”
FPS provides pilotage services to Falmouth Dock operators A&P Falmouth and Cornwall Council which runs the Ports of Truro and Penryn under an agency agreement. Falmouth Pilot Services have the remit to supply safe and efficient pilotage for this whole area on behalf of the many businesses and organisations that operate within it. The service operates 24/7 and 365 days a year across the full weather range in which shipping movements can take place within the area.
