Quay of life

The latest vehicle to emerge from the workshop of all-terrain vehicle developer Supacat is a strange looking beast.

Part tractor, part tank and part submarine, the machine has attracted some incredulous looks as it trundles along the country lanes surrounding Supacat’s Devon headquarters.

But while startled motorists might fear they’ve come face to face with some strange new weapon in the war on terror, the bizarre contraption has an altogether less sinister application — the launch and recovery of the RNLI’s next generation of all weather, high-speed lifeboats.

Developed specifically for the Fast Carriage Boat (the vessel which will replace the hugely successful Mersey class vessel) Supacat’s launch and recovery system (L&RS) has been designed to automate a process that hasn’t changed for years. Although there is currently just one prototype of the Supacat system, the project’s chief engineer Simon Turner believes that a whole fleet of around 20 vehicles could enter service as early as 2010.

The key elements of the system are a tractor and a carriage, both of which are equipped with caterpillar tracks. The tractor contains the engine and cab while the carriage incorporates a turntable that enables the lifeboat to be rotated from its bow forward recovery position back into launch position in just under two minutes.

Powered by a Mercedes-Benz V6 12-litre engine producing 422bhp the system has a top speed of 10.5mph and, with a lifeboat onboard, weighs around 47 tonnes.

Said to be simple to operate, control centres around two joysticks: one for direction and speed and the other for shifting the power between the front and rear sets of tracks.

Supacat has spent the past two and a half years putting the vehicle through rigorous tests, beginning with dry trials at Qinetiq’s facility near Bournemouth, moving on to the steep shingle banks of Dungeness and the sands of Wells-Next-the-Sea in Norfolk, and culminating this winter in rough weather trials on the Cornish coast.