The NYPD’s Harbor Unit ordered from Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corp., five new patrol boats, three 61-footers and two 70-footers. The yard has previously built more than a dozen patrol boats and a fireboats for operation in New York Harbor.
The first high-speed patrol boat, designed by C. Raymond Hunt and outfitted for the unit’s dive team, features the shipyard’s Chesapeake Class pilot boat deep-V hull. The new boat measures 61-ft. on deck, with a 17-ft. beam and 3-ft. draft. Unique to this hull design is the squared-off bow, with fendering and knees raised above the main deck to facilitate bow landings.
The heated forward-leaning windows in the front and the side and aft windows on the flush-mounted pilothouse offer 360-degree visibility of search and rescue operations. The view is further enhanced from the flying bridge.
In the forecastle will be a patient triage area, with two upper and lower berths, a small, fully-equipped galley, and a head. Aft of the pilothouse is the diver’s ready-room, with a settee and table and a work counter. Behind the ready room, the open aft deck is partially covered by a removable canopy for the divers’ dressing table, gear, and scuba tanks, and a decontamination shower. On the aft deck is also a 13-foot inflatable tender, launched by a hydraulic, knuckle boom crane.
Along the wide side decks are port and starboard rescue recesses with steps leading to a platform just above the waterline and a davit on deck for lifting a Stokes litter-basket stretcher onto the main deck. Rescues can be performed from the transom as well. The guard over the waterjets forms a platform on which a hinged rescue platform can be lowered and raised hydraulically.
The boat’s main propulsion comes from twin 10 cylinder MTU-10V2000M94 diesel engines, each producing 1600 Bhp at 2,450 rpm, giving the boat a top speed of over 35 knots, and at 25 knots a range of about 180 miles.The engines turn a pair of Hamilton HM521 water-jets through ZF3000 gearboxes. A 30 kW Northern Lights/Alaska Diesel M944W3 generator provides service power. The boat features heated decks and transom platform to prevent icing during the winter. The heating and air-conditioning, a chilled water/heated loop system, includes a 48,000 Btu chiller and an Espar 16kW diesel heater.
