Armstrong Marine, Port Angeles, WA, delivered ‘Arctic Solution’, an impressive landing craft to transport equipment and personnel to and from oil producing regions near Prudhoe Bay, AK. ‘Arctic Solution’ was built for Arctic Marine Solutions in Seward, Alaska, to an innovative landing craft design developed by Pat Eberhard, Engineer and owner of CoastWise Corporation. This new new design is co-owned by Arctic Marine Solutions and CoastWise Engineering. When laden this 38.6 ton (85,000 lb.) vessel has an impressive sprint speed of 30 knots (Lightship 35 knots)! The vessel is a shallow water roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) passenger and vehicle ferry, and features a planing hull form. It is certified to carry 2 crew and 49 passengers and also to carry hazardous materials Boat builder Armstrong Marine were chosen for their expertise in fabrication and aluminium work. Because of the vessel’s size, they constructed the hull and wheelhouse in two sections and it is Armstrong’s and CoastWise’s attention to detail, that makes this vessel stand out. Three removable pods were also built for the landing craft to each seat 12 workers, and can be fixed as required to the vessel’s deck for ferrying personnel to drilling sites. The bow ramp designed by Pat Eberhard is very impressive and can load heavy vehicles from unimproved beaches. It has the ability to sustain a 65,000 lb. load for extra durability in the harsh environment of the North Slope. Lightship Arctic Solution has a payload of 28.7 tonne (63,235 lb.). She is powered by triple 485 kW (650 hp) Scania DI12 66M diesel engines coupled to triple UltraJet 410 waterjet propulsion systems, via ZF325-1 transmissions. Waterjets are now the preferred form of propulsion for many fast craft applications, offering high speed efficiency, optimal controllability and fast response times as well as shallow draft. The exceptional manoeuvrability is achieved with an UltraJet JetMAster-Pro electrohydraulic control system fitted for steering and independent operation of the three reversing deflectors.
