86 POWERBOAT & RIB MAGAZINE

INTO THE

ICE ZONEWHAT FORM OF BOAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE IF YOU WERE EXPECTED TO TAKE TO THE SEA

AMIDST ICE FLOWS AND IN THE FACE OF FREQUENT GALES? THE PROFESSIONALS OPERATING IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC ARCTIC WATERS REVEAL THEIR SECRETS ABOUT THE CRAFT THEY

TRUST THEIR LIVES TO… WORDS: MATT KENNEY

The patrol launch in Mercer Bay. © D

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EXTREME OPERATION

POWERBOAT & RIB MAGAZINE 87

… a diligent crew can achieve great things, and a good RIB is a great achiever.

extreme north of South Georgia. With only eight permanent BAS staff during winter months, the team at KEP know a lot about what it takes for them to carry out their work in such a harsh environment. Fisheries and marine ecosystem studies make up the majority of the work undertaken at the station, and as such, a great deal of work occurs at sea. Undertaking this work, largely unsupported in these southerly latitudes, demands high-quality and capable craft, and for the base’s boating officers charged with running the fleet, rigid inflatables fill the requirement admirably for seaworthiness, capability and ease of use. KEP research station is equipped with a fleet of five small craft. Two 10.5m, 630hp all-weather harbour patrol vessels, Pipit and Prion, provide support to the government administration, undertaking fishing vessel boardings, harbour patrol duties and work to support the government officers in their management of the

Before the development of the rigid inflatable boat in the mid 1960s, it would have been unthinkable to have

taken a 16ft boat to sea in rough conditions and tried to do anything meaningful with it. At that length, a traditional style of boat would generally have offered too little freeboard, too little stability and an inability to carry any serious power on her transom, or much weight on her decks. Today, however, the British Antarctic Survey on South Georgia Island does just that. At just a fraction over 16ft, two of the research and support boats used by the team at King Edward Point research base are capable of pressing on and keeping up with the larger counterparts in the fleet, even when the going gets rough. How? Well, because they are RIBs. This isn’t just the Solent, though. Or even the North Sea. This is the Southern Ocean. Since the first pioneering seafarers braved its treacherous waters in the 17th century, the infamous Southern Ocean has demanded absolutely everything of the vessels and crew daring enough to venture there. 960 nautical miles east of Cape Horn on the remote Scotia Arc lies an island rugged enough to endure the very worst the Southern Seas have to offer – the island of South Georgia. Its nature is as unfriendly as the ocean which surrounds it. The mountain ranges point jaggedly skyward along its spine to nearly 10,000ft, and its glaciers and ice caps make much of the island impassable without great exertion. South Georgia sits in the path of every great storm which passes through the Drake Passage, and its coastal waters are often occupied by large icebergs which have drifted north on currents from the Antarctic Continent. The fearsome coastlines are littered with shipwrecks both historic and more modern, and natural harbours still echo with the rusted and weather-beaten remains of the island’s once lucrative whaling and seal-catching industry. Today, the island’s only human habitation is a small number of scientists and support staff at KEP on the island’s east coast, and a smaller research station located on Bird Island to the

island’s habitat and heritage. In addition, two 5.0m RIBs, Luna and Alert, fitted with twin outboards, provide much of the capability on the island – they are used primarily for science support and beach landings, and provide general utility. The fifth boat in use and the jovial pride of the fleet is the dependable 2.5m tender Dotty, which is used for transferring personnel ashore on calm days, and for undertaking wharf maintenance duties and any other jobs which require a small but stable boat. BAS employ two boating officers for the season to maintain and operate the boats on the island. Throughout the 2010–11 season the team consisted of ex-ocean-racing yacht skipper, diver and Antarctic boat coxswain Ashley Perrin and myself – an ex-coastguard SAR mission controller, commercial yacht

skipper and lifeboatman. The RIBs have proven utterly dependable workboats over the last decade which consistently punch above their weight in this environment. South Georgia’s weather is difficult to predict and erratic, and despite careful planning, the weather can rapidly deteriorate with almost no warning. Katabatic winds of over 100 knots, brash ice, bergs, fog and snowstorms are just some of the challenges faced by South Georgia boat crews all year round. One such instance occurred a few weeks back when Luna was required to join the harbour patrol vessel on an extended journey to Stromness Bay, some 20 miles to the north of the base. The tasking was to support a BAS and South Georgia Government initiative to further improve the mapping

A crewman sits in the back of ALERT and warms up after a very cold passage. Note the ice formed by freezing salt spray.

LUNA, Ice and Mountains.

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of the Busen Peninsula adjacent to Stromness Bay. The RIBs are required to accompany the patrol vessel and land personnel and equipment on remote and hazardous beaches and rocky outcrops, as the highly equipped patrol boats are not suitable for beaching. The boats left King Edward Point at 8am local time and rounded Hope Point (where Sir Ernest Shackleton’s memorial cross is situated), and we headed north towards the open sea. The weather was good with a steady force 4 from the north-east, but a large and lazy ocean swell was rolling in to the bay, and the grey sky hung heavy and foreboding overhead. The boats usually get a good saltwater washdown as they round Sappho Point, and today was no exception. The seas heap up and the swell becomes confused as waves which were created by Southern Ocean storms many thousands of miles out to sea finally find the shallower water of the continental shelf and subsequently split around the

Thatcher Peninsula. Despite its reputation for confused seas, the point is a great place to view marine mammals, and porpoising fur seals, many varieties of penguin and even orca can be seen regularly in the area. Leaving Larsen Point to port, the boats commenced the offshore leg of the journey, and once they were out of the protection of the Cumberland bays found the conditions rapidly deteriorating. The boats made steady but slow progress northward into a rising sea which was now breaking periodically. The wind was blowing a steady force 7 from the north-east and was gusting to well over 40 knots, but the boats remained responsive and rose instantly to each approaching sea. An enormous tabular iceberg was aground to seaward and made an awesome spectacle as the heavy seas broke around its base and giant petrels swooped about its lofty ice cliffs. The 4-metre seas looked particularly big from aboard Luna, but with such

88 POWERBOAT & RIB MAGAZINE

The RIBs have proven utterly dependable workboats over the last decade which consistently punch above their weight in this environment.

EXTREME OPERATION

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Harbour Patrol Lauch o� the Nordenskjold Glacier

Matt and the Shallow Water Marine Survey scientists.

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confident handling it was a joy to negotiate each crest. Continuing passage northward a further 4 nautical miles, we then altered course to the east and into Stromness Bay. The mountain range along the Busen Peninsula afforded a reasonable lee and the seas eased to a moderate quartering set with lighter accompanying winds. With that we were able to increase speed and headed for our first landing site a few miles up the bay at a steady 25 knots. Once at the first landing site the patrol vessel went to anchor, and the RIB was brought alongside to transfer passengers and cargo. Arriving ashore some minutes later, with her engines trimmed up to reduce her draft, Luna successfully deployed the cartographer and his cutting-edge satellite positioning equipment at the required location. To map the area, each landing required an hour or more ashore at each of the five locations to collect the data, so we had to work efficiently to ensure returning to base before nightfall. Each subsequent landing required manoeuvring the RIB on to a beach or rock promontory nestled among craggy covelets close to the ghostly abandoned whaling stations of Husvik, Leith and Stromness. The sheer beauty and grace of the area is a lavish addition to what is always exciting and stimulating boating here, but very tricky conditions and hazardous uncharted coasts keep the coxswain intensely occupied for the most part. The RIBs proved themselves

just as capable of navigating coastal ocean waters during a gale as nimbly negotiating sharp rocks, surging swells and tangled kelp beds – conditions more akin to their natural role as small support boats. This was further demonstrated on the return leg, as with the engines trimmed out to keep the bow buoyant and proud, the RIBs kept an exciting pace down weather and down sea, this time in a northerly force 8. Once clear of Stromness Bay heading south, the seas once again

became steep, and at times the surging breakers drowned out the drone of the twin outboards. Despite the conditions, the boats remained remarkably dry, keeping a steady pace with the patrol vessel, and both enjoyed a safe but thrilling passage back to base. It is the versatility that RIBs afford their operators that makes them the ideal all-round workhorse and such impressive contenders in testing environments. This adaptability was demonstrated during

another recent project at KEP. October saw the start of the 2011–12 Antarctic summer science season, including an exciting project led by a small team of marine biologists from BAS. Scientists wanted to undertake sampling of the seabed at various locations around the Cumberland Bay area to investigate the local flora and fauna, and the project required a boat to carry out the trawl work. It was decided that the most suitable boat for the job would be Alert with her dive RIB layout and open aft deck. So with some cunning modifications, she was transformed into perhaps the world’s first RIB trawler! The makeshift system worked perfectly and the boat proved very capable while accumulating around 13 hours of trawling. The team were overwhelmed by the samples that were recovered and they will provide a significant contribution to the marine science being undertaken by many nations around the Scotia Arc. It is just another example of what is achievable with a modestly sized RIB. A well-built, well-equipped, competently handled RIB is capable of doing anything reasonably asked of her – anywhere, any time. Be it an inshore lifeboat serving its local seafaring community, or a scientific support vessel operating deep in the Southern Ocean, a diligent crew can achieve great things, and a good RIB is a great achiever.

Matt KenneyBAS senior boating o�cerSouth Georgia

It is the versatility that RIBs afford their operators that makes them the ideal all-round workhorse …

RIBS

POWERBOAT & RIB MAGAZINE 89

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Driving LUNA back from Stromness Bay

Matt Kenney bringing LUNA

in to berth alongside the

patrol boat in sub zero

temperatures.

Helming ALERT near a large chuck of “blue ice” recently calved from the Neumayer Glacier in Cumberland West Bay

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