Completed Project - Svitzer Pilot Boat for Dongara Marine

May 29, 2024

Brad Marsden

Director - Marine Air Flow International

35 Years Experience in the Marine Industry

Svitzer Marlin Pilbara Pilot Boat Completed Project

Dongara Marine has recently finished construction and launched this pilot transfer vessel that will be operating in the Pilbara in Western Australia.

Owned by Svitzer, the vessel will be operational from Woodside's Gas plant in Dampier.

Powered by twin 900Kw (1200 hp) volve Penta Inboard Performance System engines, this amazing new design will be able to acheive a top speed of 36 knots. Fully loaded. Dongara Marine are always impressive in their designs and construction and this vessel is no different.

This level of design achieves not just a reliable boat, but also some amazing environmental efficiencies. Under trials the boat could cruise at around 80% capacity using just 6.5 litres of fuel per mile (nautical mile). This was in conjunction with a speed of 28 knots.

Obviously in the extreme conditions that north west WA has, it was essential that the vessel maintain a cool engine room and peak operating conditions. Marine Air Fl ow designed and manufactured a system to achieve just that.

Engine room in the Dongara Marine built Svitzer pilot boat

Marine Air Flow's Berkely Class Engine Room System Details

These hot and dry conditions meant that it was essential to not just cope with the salt mist and spray but also to maintain an operable engine room temperature.

To do this we designed a system that included:

air intake grilles,
outlet grilles,
high volume DC fans with inbuilt VSD's,
survey quality stainless steel air dampers,
actuators for those dampers,
finger guards for the dampers and
our new gravity assisted rollover closures that were fitted to the grilles.

For those of you who might not know, Brad is actually from Geralton and spent a lot of time in Dongara when he was younger. Dongara Marine produce such quality vessels and we are always very excited to be able to contribute to the ongoing lifespan of these boats.