Wildcat 40 Hydrographic

12m

Symmetrical hull, high buoyancy bow catamaran offering excellent sea keeping, stability and impressive accommodation and deck space, suitable for Hydrographic survey, Research and a multitude of Work boat operational roles.

The WILDCAT 40 11.7m, high buoyancy, symmetrical hull catamaran, designed to offer a large stable work platform in an attractive, graceful design, combining style and good looks with practical functionality, a rare combination today. With a length overall of 12m / 40ft and a beam of 15ft the vessels hulls have been designed to provide high buoyancy in the fwd sections to prevent slamming on the bridge deck, which itself is raised as high as practical above the WL The hulls are designed to develop a spray cushion, softening the ride at speed. Full length keels are incorporated, and provide protection to the propellers, as well as increasing the hulls grip on the water for slow drift speeds. The vessels beam has been constrained to a wide 15ft 5" providing a good compromise between work area, stability, and minimal slamming that tends occurs on catamarans that have a very wide bridge deck. Also marina space and berthing facilities are considered, where excessive beam can be hard to facilitate.

The superstructure design is full with maximizing internal accommodation area, yet providing a large and spacious flush aft deck, with the engines accessed from large opening flush hatches, providing excellent accessibility to the engines for service. The catamaran design has of course very high levels of survivability with 8 individual watertight compartments

Design

Interior

Engineering

Additional Images & Videos

Design

The benefits of the catamaran hull form are:

Transverse static stability, less rolling and motion
Directional stability in following sea conditions
Lower vertical accelerations smother motion in choppy head seas
Lower power requirements
Greater economical operational range
Deck area
Cabin space

Head Sea Abilities

Due to the slender nature of the hulls, in choppy conditions vertical accelerations are much reduced in comparison with mono hulls giving a gentle ride and motion. However previously the biggest disadvantage of the older type of catamaran hull which featured very fine sections fwd with little reserve buoyancy, giving a very smooth ride in short sea states but suffering badly in ocean swell conditions due to slamming on the bridge deck. This shortcoming has been solved with much fuller fwd sections and much greater buoyancy, giving the hull the necessary lift to prevent slamming on the bridge deck, allowing higher speeds to be maintained into larger ocean swells.

Performance

Due to the low resistance of the slender catamaran hulls, performance is excellent, especially at moderate speeds up to 20kts. Typically, horse power requirements are lower than in a similar sized mono hull. Furthermore the flat running angles of the catamaran hulls, with no hump to overcome means that there is a wide range of economical speeds, incurring no penalty in fuel consumption at transition speeds often dictated by weather conditions.

Stability

Probably the greatest benefit of the catamaran hull form over the monohull is its transverse static and dynamic stability. With GM figures typically 3-4 times greater than a similar sized mono hull the operational envelope in rough weather is extended. The Catamaran is able to provide a much more stable work platform at rest than a monohull with greatly reduced rolling and motion. In extreme conditions they are often the safest due to their great transverse stability.

Interior

The main accommodation on the Wildcat 40 is fully customizable, typically on a hydrographic vessel it will incorporate a central helm position with alongside seating for the hydrographical equipment operator / navigator and provides panoramic vision all round with all the electronic navigation and hydrographic displays situated in a large console. A work bench is fitted to the port side of the cabin stretching its full length, all the computers for the hydrograpic equipment are stored in a vertical rack / cabinet fitted at the aft of the cabin. To port is a large dinette seating area with a table between. In the st/bd hull is a large heads compartment which is fully lined in white Formica fitted with an electric toilet and sink. In the port hull f/wd is a full galley with 240v hob, sink, fridge and storage lockers. Onboard electrical power is from a 10kw 240v generator supplying multiple sockets throughout the vessel. Other equipment can include a 1500W electric capstan, Electric 95kgf bow thruster, Electro hydraulic 013T HIAB crane, Dive platform, security alarm system and a full compliment of navigation equipment. The vessel can also fitted with a 24,000btu air conditioning unit with high level outlets in the cabin roof for efficient cooling, The Wildcat is very quiet, only 70db being recorded in the cabin at 15kts, reducing to just 65db at 7kts survey speeds.

Engineering

Safehaven's depth of engineering expertise is demonstrated by our Multi Beam deployment system

The advantage of a catamaran when designing a deployment system for the expensive multi beam sonar head is that by deploying the sonar head through a moon pool in the catamarans bridge deck, a high degree of protection is provided by the twin hulls. The system is designed to lower the sonar head mounted on a 4m hydrodynamically optimised support to just below the vessels keel, operation is through a 2m stroke hydraulic cylinder with electro hydraulic operation mounted on the back of the wheelhouse on the aft deck, which lowers the head through a hatch integrated into the bridge deck forming a ‘moon pool’ the sonar head then extends down to below the keel line whereby sonar data can be collected at low speeds. For fast transit speeds the sonar head is raised and the moon pool hatch closed, whereby the vessel can again operate at high speed with the sonar head safely protected.

The sonar will be mounted as close to the centre of gravity as possible. Ducting will be provided for the cable to the survey position. The diameter of this cable will depend on the chosen system, and an allowance will be made for this in the design. The sonar will therefore be mounted solidly to the hull. This will allow a minimum amount of flex between the systems employed on the vessel, to ensure the accuracy of the measured depth

It is anticipated that the multibeam system to be fitted to the vessel will be either a Kongsberg 3002 or a Reson 8125, The system will be chosen for the engineering capabilities.

A large range of engines are possible, from 250hp up to 500 hp to provide speeds from 22kts up to 30kts

Inertia Motion Sensor

It is anticipated that an Applanix POSMV inertial aided motion unit will be used to correct for the motion of the vessel. A mounting plate will be fabricate for the unit. The IMU will be mounted above the multibeam transducer . An integral part of the system is the GPS antennas. These will be mounted with a clear view to the sky. The antennas will be mounted on the mast(s) with a robust mounting required to mitigate vibration and flex.

Dual Frequency Single Beam Echo Sounder

The anticipated preferred survey specification echo sounder for the vessel is the dual frequency Reson Navisound 420 and associated transducer. Ducting for the cable to the survey location will be provided. The survey echo sounder will be used as part of the navigation requirements using a repeater at the helm station