In 2019 the port and oil terminal consortium made the decision to upgrade the response capabilities held onboard the deployment and recovery craft Sea Sweep.
Should a pollution take place on the haven waterway that requires a response involving the Sea Sweep, the ability of being able to deploy an oil capture boom designed to operate in the weather and tide conditions we can experience and effectively contain the oily residue until collection is possible was regarded as a technological advance we needed to embrace.
The equipment was delivered to the port later in 2020 and due to the ongoing pandemic (preventing the delivery engineer attending from Denmark) contingencies were put in place should the boom be called into use.
Thankfully the situation this autumn permitted travel from Denmark and trials and training was able to take place successfully over the 9th and 10th November and the Speed Sweep Ro-Boom and Ro-Kite now forms our primary deployment boom held onboard the Sea Sweep.
Looking at the Sea Sweep, our deployment and recovery vessel, little appears to have changed however, the DESMI Speed Sweep Ro-Boom and Ro-Kite system cleverly allows for a single vessel to deploy and slow tow a U-shaped boom system offset to one side of the vessel (this allows for a better recovery rate that if it was dead astern).
Where previously two vessels would be needed to form the collection area within the boom the use of a Ro-Kite allows for a single vessel operation as one end of the boom swings out clear of the side of the Sea Sweep despite the deployment towline being onboard the Sea Sweep.The ability to store all the necessary equipment onboard the Sea Sweep allows
deployment by a single crew which both expedites the process and improves crew resilience as part of the available resource is not required to man a second deployment vessel.
The Speed Sweep Ro-Boom is stored on the deck reel with each “wing” of the boom laying over the other with the collection bay being deployed from the reel first.
Previously the boom, known as a ‘fence’ system and although similar it was deployed as one long boom and then a second vessel was required to collect the far end of the boom and bring in around to make up a U or J formation. Both vessels than would start towing slowly through the pollution and collecting.
(This picture showing the older ‘Fence Boom’ system. This boom is still perfectly serviceable and will now be held in storage as part of our response capabilities (should it be required) The reel and boom can be fitted onto the Sea Sweep (or another vessel or trailer if necessary).
The new Speed Sweep system is designed to collect the (oil) in an end chamber of the boom and due to the design, the towing vessel can undertake the operation at an increased tow speed than was previously possible which can allow for an improved capture time over the previous system. Likewise, when strong tides are running on the haven this also allows for a better capture rate.