ON TRIAL - FAST AFLOAT BOAT PROTOTYPE TAKES TO THE WATER The RNLI must always have an eye of sea rescue many years ahead. 0 latest design of Fast Afloat Boat (R is designed to achieve even highi retaining - and even imprc standards of I Although FAB 3 is, as yet, only a pr of intensive trials and developmer based on her can enter service, sh Here Neville de Moraes of Williar from the builde to tne future, anticipating the needs ne project now well under way is the B) : nown as FAB 3. This 17m boat speeds than current boats while iving on — the current high RNLI lifeboats.

Dtot/pe, and there are many months ahead before a class of lifeboats is already showing great promise.

nOsborne looks at the FAB 3 story's point of view Sunday 3 February 1991. Wind slight, northeasterly. Visibility clear. Sunny. To the layman a crisp bright sunny winter morning.

Time 11.45 am.

Alan Norman, slipway superintendent at boaibuilders William Osbome. gave the final command "Slack off winch". Less than five minutes later FAB 3 slid gracefully and uneventfully into the waters of the River Arun at Littlehampton.

This undramatic event witnessed by some 40 or 50 people, heralded the start of a new era for lifeboats. !t was the first time Ihat FAB 3, a new high-technology lifeboat prototype entered the water. Nine months of intense building activity had come to an end and the boat was now ready for trials.

The building phase was, in itself, just the culmination of two years of research and development by a team of dedicated technical professionals at the RNLI. Starting w:ith a blank sheet of paper and using the wisdom accumulated through more than 150 years of life-saving, the designers and operators together specified a new concept in lifeboats.

It was to be the fastest All-weather lifeboat in the RNLI fleet, with a design speed of 25 knots. Standards of equipment had to be 'state of the art" and accommodation in line with the requirements of today's operating conditions.

An operating range of 250 miles at full speed was required and survivor accommodation had to be greater than in the Arun class, the current large All-weather lifeboat.

These demanding criteria - and many more - led to an immense technical effort headed by David Hudson, chief technical officer of the RNLI. It started with a series of discussions, design drawings and calculations. Later on. the early design ideas were encapsulated in a scale model which was tested exhaustively in lank tests and as a free-running radio controlled model for operational performance under varying wind and sea states.

These tests confirmed Ihat the initial technical designs were feasible and indeed acceptable.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The RNLI commissioned William Osborne to complete FAB 3 as a first-ofseries.

To meet the speed criteria it was essential that the weight of the boat was maintained at as low a level as possible, without sacrificing strength. This led to the choice of fibre reinforced composites, or 'FRC'. as the building material. The deck and superstructure is effectively a sandwich of foam contained within two fibre reinforced plastic sheets. It has the characteristic of extremely high strength for its weight, considerably higher than aluminium, but it does create special requirements in the building phase. It is not possible, for example, to weld brackets or stiffening materials directly to the surface. Stiffening has to be resin-bonded lo the material and even the smallest bolted item has to be located specifically on to wooden cores set and bonded into the FRC material. This leads to an immense amount of detailed design in terms of the location of every single bolt, nut or fastening throughout the whole 17m boat. Given that there are some 20.000 such fastenings in a boat of this size, this is no mean feat.

In addition FAB 3 has been fined with the latest navigaiional and electronic equipment. For example, closed circuit television gives the helmsman a view of the engine compartment and of the aft deck of the boat. Satellite navigation equipment enables the boat's position to be established with great accuracy anywhere on the surface of the globe. A comprehensive galley, which includes a microwave oven, gives the operators standards of comfort not hitherto associated with lifeboats, and offers the prospect of Continued on page 92 Lifeboats and their equipment are complex and must work with complete reliability in the worst of conditions. It must be stressed that FAB 3 is a prototype, and it is possible that there will be many changes to both boat and equipment before a new FAB enters service.

ON TRIAL - FAB 3 TAKES TO THE WATER Continued survivors being given more than the traditional hot cup of tea! Full medical facilities, including a working space for a doctor and a comprehensive medical kit, are also part of this boat's standard features.

To pack all this new equipment into a boat of this size and still allow operators the maximum operating efficiency and working space was not easy. A full scale mock-up of the wheelhouse was built to make sure that all equipment could be fitted in exactly where it was required and comments were invited on the precise layout of instrumentation and equipment.

Similarly teams of medical advisers were brought down to William Osborne to inspect and comment on the level and location of medical equipment so that as the boat was built the right equipment was installed in the right place.

William Osborne's project manager, Steve Answell, who was responsible for master-minding the nine-month building phase, commented 'The amount of detailed investigation and the thoroughness with which it has been done represents the most comprehensive thinking that has ever gone into a new lifeboat in all the thirty years I have been associated with building them.' So, after two years of design and development and nearly a year in the building, what happens now? March and April of 1991 saw George Barnes and Jerry Morris, the two lifeboat coxswains at William Osborne, busily putting the boat through its paces. A set programme of builder's trials included comprehensive testing of every aspect of the boat.

Machinery, electronic equipment, loose gear and navigational aids were all each tested separately and together and in the two months after launch FAB 3 was put through some 60 hours of intense examination.

Any weaknesses were determinedly removed, settings were constantly corrected, refinements were built in, until the day came for handing over to the RNLI - Wednesday 15 May -1991.

Between May and August the RNLI's own crews will have put the boat through a similar series of tests, trials and familiarisation trips, which will probably encompass the equivalent of another year of normal operating use.

Plans include trying out the boat in every conceivable condition and every possible sea state. As wide a number of technical people as possible will be invited to state their views, so that by early August further adjustments can be made to eliminate those disadvantages that remain and to build in other desirable features that may be considered worthwhile.

The boat will then be put to the test by operators and their views canvassed.

It will have been one of the most comprehensively designed and tested lifeboats to have been built anywhere in the world. It will have had the views of professional designers, boatbuilders and other advisers, intermingled with the views of experienced operators. This amalgam of experience will embody itself in the final shape and fitting of a lifeboat that is designed to take the RNLI into the 21st century.

All in a day's work for the hundreds of people involved in the various stages - but there is perhaps only one who will have witnessed everything that has happened. For, in common with every William Osborne lifeboat, a small mascot lives in the wheelhouse - presented by the employees of the yard to illustrate their commitment and the part of their lives that has been put into the boat.

This small purple mascot - called Sprite - has lived in the wheelhouse of FAB 3 from the very beginning and will live aboard for the rest of the boat's life. She will be with her on every life-saving mission, she will see the final fulfilment of hundreds of people's work each time a life is saved at sea..