VESSEL REVIEW | VP03 – Foil-equipped coastal and offshore patrol boat for Australia's Victoria Police

The Victoria Police in Australia recently took delivery of a new patrol vessel built by Q-West Boat Builders of Whanganui, New Zealand.

The all-aluminium VP03 is the latest example of a series of patrol vessels designed by New Zealand-based Teknicraft for government operators in both Australia and New Zealand.

She is also the third boat to be built by Q-West for the same operator and even has a nearly similar design but is slightly longer with a different layout.

Improved performance combined with ample liveaboard facilities

“She will be operated along the south coast of Victoria and into Bass Strait,” Nic de Waal, Managing Director at Teknicraft, told Baird Maritime. “She is therefore designed to operate up to 150 nautical miles offshore, and her design and certification fully comply with [Australian Maritime Safety Authority] NSCV [requirements] for a class 2B vessel.”

VP03 has an LOA of 18.6 metres (61 feet), a beam of 6.8 metres (22 feet), a draught of only 0.8 metre (2.6 feet), and space for up to six personnel.

“The owner’s brief was to provide a vessel with a top speed of over 40 knots, together with an economical cruising speed. It needed overnight accommodation for a mixed crew of six persons in separate cabins. It also needed a large wheelhouse seating five crew, a galley, and dining and mission planning areas.”

De Waal remarked that all of the requirements were successfully incorporated, and the vessel’s performance well exceeded the expectations.

Advanced foiling system adaptable to a range of sea states

The vessel is fitted with Teknicraft’s dynamic hydrofoil system, which enables the operator to adjust the foil’s lift and drag properties with the touch of a button. De Waal said this capability ensures that the dynamic lift is always optimised depending on whether the vessel is loitering, cruising, or pursuing at high speed.

The foil can also be adjusted to suit the sea state environment in which the vessel is operating.

The propulsion setup consists of two Scania DI16 810kW (1,100hp) diesel engines coupled to Hamilton HJ403 waterjets via Turret cardan shafts instead of gearboxes. Fuel is fed from tanks with a total capacity of 7,000 litres (1,500 gallons).

“The performance of the vessel is exceptional with a two-way averaged maximum speed of 44.5 knots,” de Waal told Baird Maritime. “What is even more impressive is that the vessel can cruise in fully laden condition at 32 knots using only 58 per cent power, with fuel consumption of only 6.8 litres (1.5 gallons) per nautical mile. The fuel consumption is almost constant, varying from only six to seven litres (1.3 to 1.5 gallons) per nautical mile over a large speed range of between 24 and 34 knots.”

Layout and systems offering enhanced situational awareness

This vessel was also designed to maximise its viewing and reconnaissance capabilities by placing the wheelhouse on an upper deck with 360-degree viewing. The wheelhouse itself has forward-leaning windscreens to help reduce glare from the helm station and to reduce reliance on wipers when operating under inclement weather conditions.

For enhanced situational awareness under nighttime or other low-visibility conditions, the crew will rely on a Furuno radar and a mast-mounted rotating thermal camera.