ARES Shipyard recently launched the first in a series of new patrol boats for the Qatar Coastguard. Gurit Composite Engineering (Zurich, Switzerland) was involved in this project right from the start at the early design stage. The company worked together with project partners BMT Nigel Gee Ltd, naval architects, ARES Shipyard, builder of the HERCULES series fast patrol boats for Qatar Coast Guard for an order covering five vessels at 24m, 10 boats at 34.5m and two 48m boats.
Gurit provided the full structural design service from developing the initial concept of the vessels to working with ARES Shipyard on providing shop floor drawings and answering questions during the approval process. As part of the engineering design, Gurit also undertook finite element analysis on the composite waterjet for the 48m vessel to ensure that the intake avoids the natural frequencies from the waterjet’s impeller.
The boat was engineered to naval classification requirements of Turkish Lloyds while meeting the strict weight targets set by BMT Nigel Gee and hard specifications imposed by ARES Shipyard, maintaining a structure that would be quick and simple to build.
In addition, Gurit was selected to supply Corecell foam and epoxy resin for the built of the vessels. Gurit Corecell provides a combination of high shear strength with low density, high elongation and high temperature resistance supporting the creation of a robust structure capable of coping with the operating temperatures expected in Qatar.
Marine Equipment Directive and US Coast Guard