Police Marine Power
The Background
The new flagship of the NSW Police Force Marine Area Command arrived in Sydney Harbour on June 30 following its eight-day voyage from Henderson, West Australia.
The Offshore Patrol Vessel ‘Nemesis’ has been three years in the planning and building, after Tenix Defence won the contract to build the $11 million vessel in 2007.
According to BAE Systems Australia Project Manager, Leigh Newbery, the project was won from a field of three Australian and two International shipyards based on a range of criteria that included speed, endurance, efficiency, and responsiveness in differing sea states, service support, as well
as experience in building such vessels.
“From a builders view point we are extremely happy with how the project has come together, especially the performance aspects of the vessel.
“At 32 metres and 104 tonnes it’s a lot of boat, so when it came to recommending the propulsion engines we looked a quite a few options, but in the end the 1,825mhp CAT 12V C32 ‘ACERT’ diesels stood out from the rest.
The Requirement
The customer required speed, endurance, efficiency, and responsiveness in differing sea states, service support, as well as experience in building such vessels.
The Solution
“The C32’s are a great engine for what they are, with great all round performance, excellent
fuel efficiency, leading power to weight ratios and exceptional torque output that gets ‘Nemesis’ out of the water fast and produce sprint speeds of 27 knots.
“We’ve used Cat engines in the past, as has the NSW Water Police, and have experienced exceptional product support from Energy Power Systems Australia and their CAT dealer network”, Leigh said.
The name ‘Nemesis’ has been synonymous with the NSW Water Police since virtually day one, and at 32 metres the Marine Area Command’s new flagship is the force’s biggest vessel to date and replaces two 22 metre vessels that have been sold.
The Results
According to Marine Area Command, the ‘Nemesis’ is a welcome addition to their forty-vessel fleet.
“We put a lot of time, knowledge and thought into the planning of ‘Nemesis’ and judging by her performance on the 2,500 nautical mile delivery run from West Australia we’ve got it right, with the crew on-board reporting exceptional performance and sea-keeping ability in conditions that saw 9 metre seas with 50 knot winds at some stages.
“So at this stage it appears the tender process has worked as it was intended, delivering the best overall package for our needs. We couldn’t be happier with all the systems, as to undertake a delivery voyage like this with very few problems is just awesome.
“In relation to the engines, the tender called for the evaluation of numerous issues and asked for several engine options to be considered and at the end of the process we deemed Caterpillar’s 32 litre 12V C32 diesel to be the most appropriate engine for our requirements, scoring exceptionally well in a number of key performance criteria.
“We currently have six 16 metre vessels powered by CATs, so we’ve had extensive experience with their performance and their support, which overall has been of an extremely high standard.
“And CAT’s C32 diesels with ACERT technology have certainly surprised, performing well and being extremely fuel efficient for a vessel of this size.
“We pretty well knew what the fuel consumption would be at 20 knots, but when the cruise speed was dropped back to 18 knots due to the heavy conditions their fuel consumption was simply unbelievable which meant we used thousands of litres less fuel than we’d estimated – which for a boat of this size is just phenomenal”, a Water Police spokesman said.
Originally launched at the Miami Boat Show in 2005, the C32 engine was the first to feature CAT’s exclusive ACERT technology that was developed through a $500 million investment in research and development and was hailed as a breakthrough in terms of emissions, power density and fuel economy.
According to Energy Power System Australia’s General Manager – Marine, Martin Ditchburn, the C32 ACERT development touched on all
the major components of the original V-12 platform from cylinder block to cylinder packages, gear train, optimised turbo-charging and after-cooling, latest generation EUI fuel system and ADEM 1V electronics.
“The result of this research and development is higher power density and class leading 1825mhp and, in addition, the flat power curve achieved and welcomed so strongly by the market means that top rated power is available instantaneously between vessel cruising speed at 1900 rpm and top rated speed at 2300 rpm.
“The C32 ACERT engine was the first of the C family marine propulsion engines that has, using ACERT Technology, pushed the boundaries of reliable and economical power-to-weight performance engines to new levels.
“ACERT is amazing technology, delivering maximum levels of power output at the same time as achieving even better levels of fuel economy, reliability and reduced emissions, which has enabled us to extend our market leadership in terms of power
to weight ratios without compromising in any way on the robust reliability for which Caterpillar engines are renowned”, Martin said.
