Two Guardian Class Patrol Boats were recently launched simultaneously on the AMC CUF Floating Dock, a first of its kind at the AMC Common User Facility.
Austal was required to launch two Guardian Class Patrol Boats in Henderson and through discussion with the AMC Management team it was agreed to launch them together.
This had never been done before, but was executed without incident, although due to inclement weather and high winds this full launch/undocking took two days.
The first Patrol Boat was transferred via SPMTs onto the Floating dock. Once the first vessel was secured on the cradles on the dock, the second Patrol Boat was transferred and put into position.
The docking crew attached docking lines to the vessels, ensured each vessel were secured on the cradles and removed the trailers from the floating dock.
The second day, the Patrol Boats were undocked and towed to Austal. The team were setup and ready by 5.30am. They checked everything was in order then started by de-ballast the dock slightly to lift off the landing pins to be clear of the wharf.
They then commenced manoeuvring to the deep sink pocket and begin to de-ballast down. The dock continued down to just over eight metres when the vessels were floating above and clear of the cradles.
The first Patrol Boat was now ready to be moved out of the dock. Docking lines were removed and tugs were engaged to move the vessel until it was clear of the dock to then towed by tugs to Austal wharf.
The second vessel was moved via docking lines to the west end of the dock ready for the tugs to return to tow to Austal.
