Say Hello To The Thunder Child – A Boat That Is Impossible To Capsize

 Safehaven Marine is an Irish company that builds fibre-reinforced plastic boats and military craft including patrol boats, crew transfer vessels, and survey catamarans. The company was established in 1996 and has built over 120 boats deployed in 26 countries.

The company designed The Thunder Child for the Navy and water law enforcement organizations. It has an incredible self-righting technology that makes the 17-meter long high-speed boat impossible to capsize. The boat is pushed through the water through all weather conditions by a pair of  Caterpillar C12.9 turbocharged, supercharged and intercooler diesel engines producing 1,000hp each.

(Source: Interesting Engineering)

What makes the boat impossible to capsize is the sleek hull design with a low vertical centre of gravity paired with a buoyant superstructure. The boat can stay positively stable up to 120 degrees of heel. If heeled beyond this point, the self-writing mechanism of The Thunder Child will correct the vessel.

The boat can accommodate 10 crew members on board with 6 high tech AMP Wave breaker shock mitigation seats and 4 fixed seats. There is a separate sleeping compartment as well. The boat is perfect for both short emergency responses or long search and rescue missions. The fuel tanks of 5,000+ litres allow a range of over 750 nautical miles. It has a cruising speed of 40 knots but can easily go up to 60 when pushed at full throttle.

The boat has all the necessary equipment for navigation and communication, which makes it perfect for military and surveillance work. The onboard equipment includes GPS, radars, night vision camera systems. CCTV, and radio. The little boat can also be fitted with weapons like grenade launchers and guns making it fit for combat when required.

(Source: Interesting Engineering)
In the month of July 2017, The Thunder Child set the world record time for circumnavigating Ireland via Rockall. The boat was able to successfully complete the challenge in 34 hours, 1 minute and 47 seconds to cover 1,100 Nautical miles. 5 crew members were on board during the journey they were met with some extreme weather.

“Heading out to Rockall it was lumpy during the night which was probably the most dangerous leg of the voyage due to maintaining high speeds in the dark, but once we arrived it was fine,” said Managing Director of Safehaven Marine and the captain of the boat Thunderchild Frank Kowalski.

You can see the video below:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *