Australian shipyard Echo Yachts unveiled the 50m Project Echo – HSV Humanitarian Support Vessel with a catamaran hull, designed by Bannenberg & Rowell.

The 50m catamaran-hulled support vessel features naval architecture by Incat Crowther and has been made to compete with heavy seas. The layout of the support vessel is flexible to use for the owner’s own adventures or to support disaster reliefs in remote areas.

Dickie Bannenberg of Bannenberg & Rowell:

“There is a history of London / Western Australian collaboration in the Bannenberg studio of course, and we have been very pleased to continue that with Echo Yachts and Incat Crowther on this new design initiative.

Support Vessels are an interesting and growing segment of the market but not necessarily one populated with vessels which combine both form and function as we believe the Echo Yachts vessel does.

The catamaran platform offers stability, fuel efficient range and space – providing an ideal mother ship for adventure and humanitarian operations whenever the need might arise. It’s good looking and practical. Echo Yachts are able to offer many technical and yacht finish options to suit any need and it has been a pleasure working with them.”

Landing craft tender and helicopter to support land crews from support vessel ECHO

The open aft deck has a knuckle-boom crane with a capacity of 12 tonnes to move 10 feet container with medical goods and drinking water onto a 12m catamaran tender, designed by All-seas Design and the boatbuilder Vikal. To operate away from the coast, a helicopter can land on the aft deck. Furthermore, people can be evacuated to the vessel’s medial rooms.

Chris Blackwell of Echo Yachts:

“This new customizable design is offered at a lower price point than our previous Project Echo – ‘ASY’ Adventure Support Yacht model and sees the removal of the large flush-deck A-frame crane from the stern, yet remains very capable of launching and retrieving large watercraft and submersibles with its 12 tonne knuckle-boom crane. Our pricing, our 100% customizable design philosophy and timely delivery are further improved due to the low Australian Dollar and our immediate newbuild project capacity”.

Brett Crowther of Incat Crowther Naval Architects:

“Incat Crowther is pleased to support the development of the newly designed ‘Project Echo’ Humanitarian Support Vessel’.  Working under Echo Yachts’ lead, and in conjunction with Bannenberg & Rowell for exterior styling, Incat Crowther brings our well-proven offshore catamaran hull form and engineering capability to underpin the concept perfectly.

Ideally suited to the specific operational requirements of this concept, our catamaran hull has a large and functional deck space with the ability to carry significant cargo and ancillary equipment, custom tenders, and other deck equipment, together with fuel and provisions for a four thousand mile operational range.

Together with its high deadweight capacity and exemplary propulsive efficiency, this Incat Crowther hull form has already been well proven in tough oceanic conditions, and is the benchmark solution in the commercial offshore oil and gas industry, where superior sea keeping, ruggedness and performance offshore are paramount.”