The Delaware Bay and River Cooperative (DBRC) in February took delivery of a new 65' fast-response skimmer vessel, the Delaware Responder. Built by Rozema Boat Works, Mount Vernon, Wash., the new aluminum vessel replaces the Delriver, a converted offshore supply boat that was christened in 1991. It has since been sold to an owner in Haiti.
After the Delaware Responder was completed, the boat was loaded onto a transport ship in Victoria, British Columbia, that transited the Panama Canal and arrived in Fort Lauderdale a month later. The fast-response skimmer was then offloaded and Capt. Andrew Coffiey from DBRC took command and ran the boat to the cooperative’s headquarters in Lewes, Del.
DBRC is an oil spill response cooperative that operates in the Delaware River and Bay. The mission of its new boat is to be on station when a tanker is offloading fuel and to contain a spill if one occurs. Virtually every company that stores or transports petroleum in Delaware is a member of the organization, which handled its last big spill response in 2003, according to Bob Poole, president of DBRC. He said that his organization had heard about Rozema Boat Works prior to this project, as the company has carved out a niche building fast-response skimming vessels.
Measuring 70' LOA with a 23' beam, the Delaware Responder looks like a straightforward working boat. Below the waterline, however, it has a complex system of doors and tanks that can separate oil from water, contain the pollutant, and pump clean water back out.
“To the untrained eye, it’s a pretty normal-looking boat,” said Dirk Rozema, who owns Rozema Boat Works with his brother Jason. “The back door opens suicide-style, and the boat has a sixty-five- to seventy-foot-wide swath that works like a combine through the water. It pulls the oil and water into the vessel and as it moves forward, the oil is contained in the tank and the clean water goes out the front door.”
The price for a 65' fast-response skimmer ranges between $6 and $7 million, Rozema said.
On deck, the Delaware Responder is equipped with a 2,000' Elastec retractable boom that self-inflates as it’s extended. Tankers range in size from 700' to 900', and the boom is designed to contain both vessels if a transfer goes wrong and causes a spill. The Delaware Responder has two different skimming systems, a Lamor three-brush unit for heavier liquids like crude oil and an Elastec disc-style version for lighter fluids like gasoline or kerosene.
The ship is on station at the cooperative’s headquarters and can respond when a call goes out with a top speed of 25 knots, thanks to a pair of 1,450-hp MAN inboards that are EPA Tier 4 compliant. Twin Disc MGX-6620RV V-drive transmissions have a reduction of 2.73:1 and are engineered to let the boat run at speeds as slow as 2 knots during a skimming operation.
“The slow speed is necessary to skimming oil,” said Rozema. “If you go too fast, the water and oil can escape out the back.”
To reduce light-ship draft to 72", the boat’s bottom has twin tunnels for the propellers. Oil-containment tanks can carry 215 bbls. of oil, and fuel capacity is 2,500 gals.
To give a captain operating location options, the Delaware Responder has four helm stations equipped with Twin Disc electronic controls. Three stations are in the pilothouse with an aft station on the exterior deck. All the stations include power-assisted hydraulic steering, throttle and shift, and controls for the hydraulic bowthruster. The hydraulic system also powers the deck crane, anchor winch, washdown pump, skimmers, off-load pump, skimmer-flow thruster, and skimmer doors.
A Furuno electronics suite includes one Navnet TZtouch XL chartplotter on a 19" color LCD monitor, 96-nautical mile radar, and a 200-watt solid-state doppler radar with target analyzer and fast target tracking. To track spills, the system has Furuno’s Foil 200 Oil Navigation Radar. A Furuno SC-70 satellite compass backs up the chart plotter, and there’s an FA170 AIS transponder. Communications are handled with two ICOM M510 VHF marine radios and a Furuno LH-5000 loud hailer. For onboard communications, there’s a Zenitel intercom system.
Electrical power is provided by two 24-kW Kohler generators that are EPA Tier 3 compliant. Four 8D (deep cycle) batteries provide starting power for the engines, while two 4D units are dedicated to the generators, and three 4Ds power the house systems.
Accommodations include four separate staterooms with a single bunk in each. There is a mid-level head with a shower stall. The galley is also positioned mid-level with a stainless-steel sink, a refrigerator/freezer, four-burner Summit Professional electric range with oven, and a microwave oven. A settee seats four.
The Delaware Responder is the first 65' fast-response skimmer vessel on the U.S. East Coast, according to Rozema. The company has several of its 47' response boats in the area.
The DBRC fleet includes a total of 20 vessels ranging from Jon boats to the group’s new flagship, the Delaware Responder.
