HMS Gleaner has ended her career in the Royal Navy, a replacement vessel will be in service in May 2018 but what will that replacement look like?
The name of this vessel will be announced tomorrow.
The vessel replacing HMS Gleaner will be a catamran based on the ‘Wildcat 60’ design (pictured above) with a beam of 6.2m and a draft of 1.4m. The vessel has a 33,000kg lightship displacement and a loaded displacement of 37,000kg.
Cork based shipyard Safehaven Marine are constructing the vessel, the largest of a fleet of up to 38 new workboats, ranging in size from 11 to 18 metres, being supplied to the UK Ministry of Defence by prime contractor AEUK.
These 18m catamarans have a loaded displacement around 37 tonnes with a capacity for up to twelve-crew to be berthed on-board, and an endurance of seven days. They are capable of deploying a range of sonar options and are all weather capable.
Safehave Marine say the design is suited to an ocean research and hydrographic survey catamaran capable of operating offshore for 7 days duration for 12 crew. To facilitate this the vessel has two sleeping cabins, one in the lower port hull and one in the st/bd hull, each fitted with 6x bunk berths and each cabin with its own separate heads compartment. A full galley is positioned in the f/wd port hull and is equipped for extended sea operations, fitted with a large capacity fridge freezer, dishwasher, 240v hob and microwave, large worktop areas and storage.
.@SafehavenMarine constructing a larger catamaran-hulled replacement for inshore survey craft HMS Gleaner due to decommission in December pic.twitter.com/hms9ahe7Za
— NavyLookout (@NavyLookout) September 11, 2017
The vessel is fitted with twin Volvo D16 engines that provide the vessel with a 23kts maximum speed and an 19-20kts operational cruise speed.
HMS Mouse a worthy and heroic antecedent.
It is not going to be commissioned. So no HMS.
Eh? I’ve obviously missed something – why won’t the new vessel be commissioned?
In WW2 vessels of 37′ were commissioned into Minesweeping squadrons as Echo Sounding Vessels. The first Minehunters/Survey ships.
if like the archers they are design to carry say, a 20mm cannon they should be fitted with it. otherwise it will be another jolly boat.
i finished my service on the wooden inshore survey ship echo i was the engineering officer with just a hook on my arm! a leading marine engineer and commander engineer without the pay
The First Sea Lord posted on Twitter that the name of Gleaners replacement will be announced soon. Therefore, it can be assumed she will be commissioned into the Royal Navy. As a vessel significantly larger than Gleaner, and the largest of the new workboat order, I always assumed this to be the case.