DELIVERY OF FINAL SC INNOVATION BUILT SHANNON LAUNCH & RECOVERY SYSTEM

Delivery of final SC Innovation built Shannon Launch & Recovery System marks 20 year collaboration with RNLI. This week, the RNLI received the final SC Innovation built Shannon Launch & Recovery System (SL&RS) marking a new milestone in a 20-year collaboration between the Charity and Devon engineering OEM.  The SL&RS is the fifteenth to be built by SC Innovation and will serve at Newcastle Lifeboat Station.

SC Innovation jointly developed the state-of- the- art system with the RNLI from early concept stage through to production and into service, and SC Innovation is continuing to support the SL&RS fleet under a new framework contract with the RNLI providing post design services and maintenance.

The SL&RS is a high-mobility tractor and tracked carriage system that acts as a mobile slipway to beach launch and recover the RNLI’s Shannon Class boat at lifeboat stations without a harbour or slipway.   The 20.2m long and 37 tonne vehicle system is capable of carrying the 18 tonne Shannon over steep shingle banks, gullies and long muddy flats at speeds up to 10mph. It can operate in heavy surf conditions in depths approaching 3m and is fully submersible in depths up to 9m. 

Joe Wilcox, Head of Projects, SC Innovation, said:

“We are immensely proud of our collaboration with the RNLI in producing an exceptional piece of equipment that is making a difference in saving lives at sea.  The challenge it presented has enhanced our engineering skillsets, especially for the marine environment, and it has become a showcase for our engineering capabilities in developing bespoke equipment for hostile environments and high mobility transportation”. 

The journey started in 2002 when SC Innovation’s solution to the RNLI’s challenging requirement for a vehicle to beach launch a new All Weather Lifeboat – then designated FCB to replace the Mersey Class – became one of two selected for pre-prototype development. The vehicle had to match the RNLI’s evolving FCB design, which would be the first water jet propelled lifeboat and need to able to be both launched and recovered `Bow First`.

The RNLI conducted a two-year side by side trials programme with a view to selecting one or both solutions.  The prototypes were tested at stations representing the extreme conditions where Shannon would be beach launched – steep shingle gradients at Dungeness, long distances over flat sand and gullies at Wells-Next-The-Sea and rough Atlantic swells at Hayle.  The SC Innovation design’s superior mobility, utilising a permanent, software controlled Four-Track-Drive system for extreme traction, won it the sole pre-production development contract in 2008.  The pre-production design incorporated a series of upgrades, such as a new composite 180-degree rotating cradle to increase visibility and allow the driver to face either way for safe `Bow First` launch and recovery, and a new 450hp Scania engine to increase the speed to 10mph.

In 2012 the first production standard SL&RS was unveiled and entered service at Dungeness in 2012 with SC Innovation building the next two to support the Shannon’s initial introduction into service.  The second competitively tendered production contract was won by SC Innovation the following year.  In 2016 SC Innovation designed a new two-track drive `non-powered carriage` variant to save costs for lifeboat stations with more benign conditions where less traction is needed.