In October 2008, Viking Welding of Kensington, NH delivered a 26.5 ft trailerable survey boat to the EPA’s Narragansett Laboratory. After performing nearly a year of pre-bid research and specification writing, the EPA ultimately awarded the contract to Viking Welding.
The welded aluminum vessel was designed by Bill Lincoln at Response Marine. Lincoln said, “They liked the ride of our boat, but wanted to try to increase the loitering stability while maintaining an 8.5 ft beam. So before finalizing their design we did a theoretical study of various bottom shaped that would increase the at rest stability without compromising the ride. We ended up keeping our forward sections with the normal steep deadrise, but flattened out the after sections and widened the chine aft. At the transom we have 10 degrees of deadrise and a 9.5 inch chine width. The study indicated a 10% improvement in the 5 to 10 degree righting arms of this hull versus our normal hulls of this type.”
Aluminum for the boat was provided NC cut and marked by Yarde Metals, 135 pieces in all. According to Viking’s Don Johnson, “we’re happy to cut the extrusions, but between Yarde’s work and our in-house cutting table, we design and cut just about all sheet parts with the computer these days. It ends up being more design time, but a lot less labor and, most important, a better product.”
This is the fourth hull from Viking Welding’s new facility in Kensington. Viking specializes in custom and semi-custom welded aluminum boats for commercial and government applications. Other boats recently out of their shop are a 20 ft Fire/Rescue boat for Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, IN, and a workboat for the state of NY. The next anticipated deliveries include an 18 ft rescue boat and a 30 ft fire/rescue boat.
(www.responsemarine.com)