Mapso - Marine Propulsion and Supply

News

The great civilization of ancient Egypt has left hundreds of exceptional monuments along the banks of the mighty Nile, the longest river in Africa.

Every year millions of tourists come to Egypt to admire these monuments, most of which lay between the Luxor and Aswan. Many of these tourists are accommodated on Nile river cruise ships, typically 72 meter long vessels with four decks.

There are over 300 of these floating hotels cruising the 300 kms that separate the two ancient cities. It is a beautiful sight to admire these elegant vessels at sunset against the dramatic background of the Sahara desert cliffs overlooking the Nile valley. unfortunately, the view sometimes gets more dramatic, in a less pleasant way.

Fire is a permanent danger for everything afloat, and in recent years has struck more than once. Following a series of spectacular incidents in the past few years, the Egyptian government has reacted energetically to protect the precious tourism industry.

Amongst the measures taken to reduce the risks of casualties and material damage due to fire, was the commissioning of the Egyptian Army to provide and operate a high performance fireboat prototype. Nine months later "Hassan Taha" was officially inaugurated and brilliantly exceeded the contract specification.

The vessel was built by the Egyptian company Helwan Machinery and Equipment Co., to a Complete Knocked Down (CKD) kit supplied by Mapso Marine Propulsion and Supply. This fireboat was the first vessel ever built by Helwan, but thanks to the dedication of the company and the technology transfer contract performed by Mapso, the outcome rivals that of the most experienced in the country.

Mapso was established in 1976 in Cairo by engineer Gabriel Maari. A joint stock company with a 100 person team in four branches Mapso has experience in the three main fields where it is active:

		Marine propulsion and marine supplies
		Diesel engines, marine and railway
		Fastening equipment and tools

"Hassan Taha" at 14.9 meters long, with a beam of six meters, a drought of 0.7 meters and weighing 22 tones is based on Teknicraft's unique low resistance, asymmetrical hull. Due to its top speed of 29.5 knots, this vessel has the benefit of being able to quickly respond to emergencies on the river and even fully loaden "Hassan Taha" will cruise at 25 knots.

Long range operational areas have seen the necessity to carry 2,400 liters of fuel on board allowing for over 12 hours of operation or up to 330 nautical miles before the need to refuel. 200 liters of fresh water will be carried on board for the crew of four. The foil assisted hull contributes to the economy of the Technicraft hull design.

The most remarkable feature of the vessel, however, lies in its unique propulsion package. The high power FFS fire pumps, consuming 270 kW each, are driven off the front PTO of the 423 kW Scania main engines revs,

While this a standard arrangement for tugs using CPP propellers, it is probably the first time it has been applied to a fast vessel with jet propulsion. One problem is that the pumps need to be run at maximum engine revs, while the jets require variable revs to control the vessel. Another problem is the act that the jet is sized to absorb the full engine power at maximum rpm, which means that nothing is left for the fire pump when it is clutched in.

The two problems were elegantly solved by driving the Hamilton water jets through ZF two speed gearboxes. The gearbox is normally on high gear for maximum speed operation, and is switched to low gear for fire fighting, relieving the engine on the jet side and freeing the required 270 kW for the pump side. Vessel control at constant rpm is achieved by using the reverse buckets of the jets. The combination of two speed gearbox and jet bucket control approximates the behavior of a controllable pitch propeller, a feature that will no doubt find other uses in the near future.

This solution, engineered by Mapso, saves the extra cost and weight of dedicated fire engines, and makes for a lighter, faster vessel. The vessel was inaugurated by a high level government delegation who were very impressed by the vessel performance. More orders are already in the pipeline for the Egyptian market.

Mapso has extensive experience in wood/epoxy boat building, however "Hassan Taha" has been built from marine grade aluminium alloy 5083. The Tecknicraft kit-set was supplied, cut and shipped to Egypt by Australian steel and alloy supplier OneStell Aluminium, from their Queensland branch.

Work Boat World recently spoke with OneSteel Market Development Manager, Richard Usherwood at the Ausmarine East conference and they were very pleased with the order and in particular, the successful delivery and cut of the Teknicraft kit set.

Response time is essential, but the vessel must also be able to effectively fight the fire when it arrives at any incident. "Hassan Taha" is fitted with a complete fire fighting system, which was supplied by FFS (Fire Fighting Systems). The fire fighting is conducted through two Unitor pumps, each with a capacity to deliver 480 m³of water per hour at 120 mlc. Each monitor capacity is 480 m³per hour working at 11 bar and the vessel can carry up to four tones of fire fighting foam. Jotun antiskid coating has been applied to the deck in order to reduce the chance of accidents while fighting fire on a wet deck surface. Jotun paints were also used on the rest of the vessel.