THE HUNT FOR A NEW ELM SHIP IS ON

Paul Madden, the force behind the Louis Vuitton Cup and Dan Stabbert of Venture Pacific Marine have kindly offered to help ELM to find a new mothership to support our on-going relief efforts in Aceh/Nias.

ELM's long term strategy is to do a twice monthly run between Banda Aceh and Sibolga /Padang stopping for a few days at each of the remote communities we have been helping or new communities we find in need. The trip is about 400-500nm one way so say 1,000 nm round trip. If we include the Mentawai islands we could be looking at 1,300nm.

We need a ship capable of maintaining 10 knots to cover the hops overnight. 8-9 knots would be workable but it would be nice to have 12-15 knots up our sleeve in case of a medical emergency or need to get somewhere before dark. Ideally we want to be able to accommodate 25-35 volunteers and say 10 local crew. Volunteers will need basic air conditioning or very good natural ventilation with insect screening. A big galley and mess area goes with this. Freezer space is important.

Cargo of between 70 and 150 tons works for us but if we could carry more we could be more flexible. Low running cost is a huge issue as fuel is getting more expensive here and we want to cover a lot of ground. 50% of our operating budget for the last 4 months was spent on fuel (not including charter fees). We don't want to be used as a free truck!

We often anchor in exposed locations and so stability and a sea-kindly motion are vital. We don't have typhoons or ice but it gets very hot and humid and it rains a lot. Draft is an issue at many locations but we don't need to maneuver much so twin engines are not essential.

Quite a few different formats would work for us and each has drawbacks and advantages:

1) Displacement Ferry format. We have used Batavia for 3+ months with reasonable results. She is an ex Hong Kong ferry with the seats taken out. The top deck had been set up as a restaurant and so she had good kitchens and freezers. She is too expensive to run with about 4,000 hp. Her cargo capacity was at most 150 tons but most of the time more like 120 tons. Our volunteers slept on mattresses on the floor with curtains on the open plan air conditioned 3rd deck. A similar boat might prove hard to find and we are reluctant to purchase her because of her huge and fuel hungry main engines, small fuel tanks (38tons), filthy 2 stroke gensets and her terrible condition. She had no cranes for loading/unloading and so was pretty hard work.

2) Fast Ferry format. Using Batavia inspired us to look at aluminum fast ferries that have passed their prime and are not competitive... ie slow fast ferries. We don't need the speed but we are attracted to the stability and shallow draft. We could rip out all the seats and use the lower deck for cargo and the upper deck for accommodation a-la Batavia. These boats are always airconditioned so we could just turn off the lower deck and save some load. Downside is that we still have large fuel hungry and expensive high tech engines and no cranes.



3) Landing Craft. We have seen one large landing craft in Port of Spain that had a big bridge deck/saloon over the stern. She would be great for taking supplies direct to the beach but cargo would have to be tarpped as all exposed to the weather and we would have to build more accommodation to handle our medical teams so we have not pushed hard on this front. We are also reluctant to get into competition with commercial cargo operators as that is not our strength. Also the scale of such a ship will mean loads that are too big for the small communities we are determined to help.



4) Oil field support ships/standby ships. Main problem with these boats is huge engines and big fuel bills. The complexity of the gear is also a worry as maintaining it will consume a lot of money one way or the other. Worth a hard look.



5) Small Classic Ships. The ship that we like best so far is a sister ship to ex Greenpeace ship SIRIUS. (46m x 8.42m x 3.5m) She about the right size at 360 tons. We are consulting with the owner on the best way to manage stowage of relief supplies. An engine room hatch is within the swing radius of her deck cranes and we can access the aft below decks area with minor modification. She is built to last with 10mm plate riveted and welded to military specs. This is the most fuel efficient ship I've ever come across (650hp at 250rpm 80ltrs/hr at 10 knots). Range is 4,000 miles so we could run for 2 months between fuel stops.

She has bunks for 35 guests and 12 crew and could take more if over under bunks are fitted. We will loose some cabins to cargo aft so the final number will drop to about 30 guests.


The ex NATO heavy duty truck cranes can easily lift our 4 beach
landing skiffs with engines bolted on eliminating one of the most
stressful jobs we faced on Batavia.

Her engine is very simple and we have a team who can manufacture the parts in Indonesia so she will be the cheapest of all to maintain even though she is the oldest ship we have looked at (1950). There is no gear box to break and the prop turns slowly enough that hitting debris should not cause problems. The single 6 cyl engine can run on 3-4 cylinders if anything breaks and can be rebuilt in hours if the parts are on board so she has the get home capacity despite the lack of a back-up. Her prop is variable pitch and reversing making her easy to maneuver and anchor.

We are open to other ideas and appeal to readers to contact us with suggestions.