Malaysian Patrol Vessels: Boats in a Box

"We fit ten 11.3-meter patrol boats in three 40-foot containers," says Chee Chong Sow, Managing Director of Malaysia’’s Sumber Samudra shipyard.

Smiling, he goes on to explain that the boats were designed by International Maritime Consultants of Fremantle Australia and their aluminum was cut in Australia so that their total weight of 50 to 60 tons fit handily into the three containers.

The ten boats were fabricated at the versatile Sumber Samudra yard in the state of Perak at Teluk Intan that also works in fiberglass and steel. In addition to welding up the 31.5X4.1X1.75-metre hulls, the yard also installed a pair of 315 HP Cummins 6BTA 5.9 M3 main propulsion engines in each vessel. The engines turn five-bladed 525 m/m diameter by 775-m/m pitch aluminum bronze propellers through ZF 2202 gears with 2.455:1 ratios. The Cummins engines were supplied by Scott & English (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

The final pair of the tidy vessels were delivered to the Marine Department for Peninsular Malaysia in late June to be deployed to two of the peninsula’s many ports. With speeds of 20 knots at half load and 15 knots at full load, the boats will carry a three person crew and up to 12 passengers for multi-purpose port duties. They are equipped with an on deck fire pump and forward monitor capable of sending a stream of water out 30 m.