Nasva photos on Flickr

A major maritime exercise, Exercise Diamond, which involved HM Coastguard, vessels, RNLI lifeboats, helicopters, search and rescue coordinators, Belfast Harbour, emergency services and local authorities was held on Sunday 23 September from 9.30 am. Exercise Diamond, a live large-scale incident exercise, was held within Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland and involved 365 people.

'Banrion Uladh', the Baltic Workboats 26m fisheries patrol vessel for the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has been delivered.

The Estonia based builder’s craft had achieved outstanding performance on recent sea trials in the Baltic prior to delivery. Powered by twin MTU 10V2000 M72 marine diesels rated at 900 kW each and driving five bladed fixed pitch propellers through ZF 2050 A gearboxes, the vessel achieved 26.5 knots at full power, well above the contract requirement. Noise levels of only 56 dB were achieved in the wheelhouse at full speed.

The MCA SCV Category 2 vessel is designed to perform fisheries inspection duties and marine surveys and is fitted with a variety of onboard equipment.

The aft deck features a RIB well with a RIB powered by twin 60hp outboards, a two ton capacity movable hydraulic gantry and a one ton Guerra marine deck crane. If necessary, the RIB well can be boarded over to create a large working deck for scientific and research activities.

The wheelhouse is separated into two distinct working parts. At the aft end there is a wet laboratory with three workstations for a variety of scientific and data collecting purposes. At the forward end is an air conditioned navigation bridge for a crew of three, with additional seats for two observers and a full size chart table with a sophisticated suite of electronics.

To give the vessel further capabilities, on the port side a dismountable multibeam echo sounder and a pot hauler davit have been fitted.

The vessel is able to accommodate seven crew members on the lower main deck in three twin cabins and a single cabin for the captain, as well as mess, galley and WC facilities.

During the build process DARD was represented by West Sussex UK based naval architects Amgram Ltd, which acted as the owner’s representative, serving as an interface between client and builder.

Banrion Uladh’s design is based on Baltic Workboats’ successful 24m Baltic 2400 platform, which has been successfully operating in Poland, Estonia and Latvia since 2008. The same platform is also the basis for the Swedish Coast Guard’s new 27m, KBV 312 series vessels, which have just commenced building in Baltic Workboats’ Nasva yard.

Exercise Diamond was designed to test the major incident plans for all of the organisations that would be involved should a major maritime incident happen in Northern Ireland.

Exercise Diamond was the largest live maritime exercise ever held in Northern Ireland.

An exercise held within the Titanic centenary, Olympic, & Diamond year involving Emergency Services, Agencies and Companies dedicated to saving lives and providing the best possible service.

The following organisations participated in the exercise:

HM Coastguard / Maritime and Coastguard Agency; Royal National Lifeboat Institution; Police Service of Northern Ireland; Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service; Northern Ireland Ambulance Service; Ministry of Defence (including Royal Airforce); Stena Line; RFD Survitec; Irish Coastguard; Northdown and Ards Borough Council; Belfast Harbour.