Report from Down Under: The World Leader in High-Speed Watercraft

With companies like Austal, HYPAC and Sea Transport leading the way, Australia is top dog when it comes to the design and production of high-speed, aluminum passenger and patrol vessels.

Australia, that magical continent 9,700 nautical miles from New York, 11,600 from Rotterdam and 4,500 from shanghai, rests in the center of the world’s imaginings: an enchanted land of mystical beginnings. Starting with the arrival of the Aborigines (some say as early as 68,000 Bc), the steady stream of the adventurous continue to arrive daily. in the year ended August 2010, 5.8 million tourists visited Australia, an increase of six percent over the previous 12-month period. This unique land continues to draw the inquisitive traveler to a warm tropical climate in the north and a temperate zone in the south. And with a coastline that stretches 25,760 kilometers and ranks as the world’s seventh longest, is it any wonder that some of the finest high-speed watercraft on the planet are designed and built in Australia?

HYPAC

Paul Kaminsky, Director of HYPAC, the Adelaide, south Australia-based manufacturer of lightweight deck machinery for high-speed ships such as passenger ferries, ROPAX vessels (ferries that carry both passengers and vehicles), crewboats, FSVs, navy and coast guard ships, knows the Australian marketplace well: “Australia has been at the forefront of high-speed craft since their inception and remains at the forefront today. The designers and shipyards continue to improve their designs and bring out new concepts.” Kaminsky noted that “compared to other countries and Australia’s huge coastline, we have relatively limited usage of high-speed vessels at the moment. Most of the ones that do operate inside Australia are passenger ferries to the Barrier reef and Rottnest Island, although there is an increasing number of crewboats and FSVs being delivered as our offshore oil and gas fields continue to expand. The use of high-speed patrol boats to protect Australia’s borders and apprehend human smugglers and drug runners is also expanding.” HYPAC is expanding its offerings to include steel winches and additional products for conventional vessels, with its recent acquisition by Precision technology, a U.S.-based company in Roanoke, VA, HYPAC has been able to manufacture its products inside the U.S. and supply them directly to customers like Northrop Grumman in Newport News. Australian design technology has been exported for many years. For example, the vast majority of the U.S. fast ferry fleet is made up of Australian designs built at U.S. shipyards. “As the Australian market is relatively small, it is expedient to design vessels for construction in other countries,” noted HYPAC’s Kaminsky.

Austal

In the design and manufacture of high-speed craft, Austal is a world leader. With its head office in Henderson, Western Australia, Austal began in 1988 with a vision to build high-quality commercial vessels for the international market. It is now a global company with operations in Australia and Mobile, Alabama. Austal entered the military market in 1998 with an order for eight Bay Class Patrol Boats for the Australian Customs Service. Sizeable orders soon followed from various navies and coast guards including the Royal Australian Navy. Its proven record of excellence has placed Austal at the top of the world’s elite patrol vessel builders. In 2001 it became the first company to supply the U.S. military with high-speed Theatre Support Vessels. Austal is now the world’s largest builder of fast ferries and aluminum patrol boats and was recently successful in winning the contract to design and build the U.S. Department of Defense’s next generation, multi-use platform, the Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV). Austal continues to drive superior performance in the industry. Its ability to control in-house design and quality along with a skilled workforce ensures its on-time and on-budget deliveries. Austal’s financial strength and sound management team will keep it at the forefront of the industry for a long time to come.

Sea Transport

Another leader in the fast-boat market is Queensland-based Sea Transport Corporation, a naval architecture and design consultancy founded by Stuart Ballantyne in 1976. One of the secrets behind Sea Transport’s success is its investment in people. Its strategy is built, in part, upon a commitment to developing a staff that has spent between nine and twelve months working on vessels at sea, thereby adding a vital depth of experience to their qualifications. This factor, combined with ongoing training and technology updating by way of seminars and conferences, produces a highly efficient and professional team able to analyze and quantify all facets of ship design, construction and operation. “Sea Transport Corporation prides itself as designers with ‘real experience’ and has gained an impressive record for designing innovative and commercially unbeatable shallow-draft vessels with designs now in 45 countries,” said Ballantyne. In September of 2010, Dennise Trajano, Chairman of Archipelago Philippine Ferry Corporation, announced that financing was approved for 10 medium-speed ROPAX catamarans. The design was created by Sea Transport Corporation. “This heralded the arrival of the country’s first brand new ROPAX ferries and a new safety standard in local ferries,” stated Ballantyne. The new design is a 50m x 17m x 1.8m draft, quadruple screw, 16-knot ROPAX catamaran for trucks, buses, cars and up to 500 passengers that complies with the latest standards of damaged stability criteria, lifesaving and firefighting equipment. The vessels are expected to commence construction shortly, and the first will be in service by the middle of 2011 with the following vessels arriving at two-month intervals.

Finding the Right People

While much has been written about the technological marvels of modern high-speed watercraft, too little attention is paid to actually operating these complex vessels. The most important part of the operation is undoubtedly the proper selection of the key people who will be at the controls. The Captain, Port Engineer, Control Systems Engineer and Chief Engineer are just some of the people that are essential to making the operation work well. “You cannot run these sophisticated and complex vessels like a bus,” said Clark Dodge, President of CED Consulting LLC, who has a lifetime of experience with fast-craft operation. And he is right. The men and women who operate these vessels have a significant responsibility with regard to operations, rules of the road, and passenger and crew safety – to name but a few of the more important issues. “We really need to pay more attention to the selection and training qualification process,” said Dodge.

Competing With Steel Ships

Leadership in the construction of high-speed aluminum vessels could bode well for Australian boat builders during the next decade. The recently published Australian Defense Capability Plan details significant strategic growth for the Royal Australian Navy through 2030. This includes the addition of 43 different vessels including submarines, Air Warfare Destroyers, Multi-Role Vessels and Future Frigates. But it does pose questions for the existing industry because naval shipbuilders in Australia do not have sufficient infrastructure to support the steel construction initiatives. The Australian shipbuilding industry has for many years been competitively priced for aluminum vessels but not for the construction of steel hulls. Steel hull shipbuilding continues to flow to less expensive countries like China, where labor is cheap and the technical construction is simple. The industry challenge now may be how to incorporate the learning from the high-speed aluminum craft business into an opportunity to take part (or all) of the steel shipbuilding needs for Australia’s future. That would be a real coup. In the mystical land Down Under, anything is possible, but one thing is certain: If you’re in the market for a high-speed aluminum boat, you’ve come to the right place.

MarEx