VESSEL REVIEW | Charley 2 – New catamaran yacht support vessel built in Western Australia

Henderson, Western Australia-based Echo Yachts has completed construction of a new yacht support vessel.

Named Charley 2, the vessel has an aluminium hull and superstructure, an aluminium/teak deck, an LOA of 56 metres, a beam of 14.8 metres, a draught of 3.4 metres, and a gross tonnage of 1,041.

An enhanced onboard layout provides spacious interior accommodations, outdoor entertainment areas, and significant capacity for carrying recreational and utility equipment such as scuba gear, personal watercraft, rigid inflatable boats, landing craft, and a sonar-equipped tender for dive site and shipwreck surveys.

Echo Yachts said the decision to build Charley 2 with a full-custom designed aluminium hull has resulted in optimised hydrodynamic efficiency. The design also allowed the installation of engines with lower output relative to the vessel’s overall dimensions.

In Charley 2’s case, the propulsion system consists of two Caterpillar C32 ACERT diesel engines that each produce 1,193 kW at 2,300 rpm to drive fixed-pitch propellers via ZF 3350 gearboxes and carbon fibre resilient couplings.

Sea trials showed that the propulsion arrangement can deliver a speed of 18 knots, a reduction of only two knots from the top speed of Echo Yachts’ slightly smaller catamaran tender Charley. The minimal drop in maximum speed is notable due to the fact that Charley 2’s engines each have a 40 per cent lower total rated output compared to the engines fitted on its 2017-built predecessor.

The propulsion can also enable the vessel to sail up to 3,800 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 12 knots.

The package supplied by Caterpillar also includes custom-built local operating panels for main engines with three Caterpillar C4.4 generators, each rated 99 ekW at 1,500 rpm. The use of efficient electrical and air conditioning systems has allowed a 34 per cent reduction in generator capacity from 150 ekW. Around 15kW of solar panels are also fitted to cover around one-third of the vessel’s electrical power requirements during daytime.

The deck equipment such as capstans and anchor winches as well as the bow thrusters are all electrically-driven to reduce noise during operation.

The onboard accommodations include 18 guest berths, another 19 berths for the crew, a pantry, a ship’s office, a large captain’s cabin, a double-guest stateroom, and two external storerooms. The yacht is also equipped with a large touch-and-go pad suitable for a three-tonne helicopter, a dive store, a decompression chamber, walk-in cold and freezer rooms, and a toilet for pets.

Other key features include two three-tonne knuckle boom cranes, a hydraulic side boarding ladder at the upperdeck for access to high-sided wharfs, a launch/retrieval platform lift for use with a 12-metre tender, and tanks for storing the petrol used by the onboard tenders. The tender platform design also ensures improved tender operations and full walk-around access for ease of cleaning and maintenance.

Charley 2 is registered under the Cook Islands flag and is homeported in Singapore.