A versatile floating, self-propelled, work platform of almost any kind is the most basic need. Add to that the requirement for a crane with a useful lifting capacity and outreach and sufficient deck space to carry equipment, spare parts and personnel, and the matter becomes rather more complicated. Another major concern is the matter of a shallow draft to enable the vessel to access seamarks, buoys and other maintenance sites at all states of the tide. A vessel robust enough to enable work to continue while aground at low water is also a distinct advantage. A further need for a more powerful lifting capability, for debris and wreck removal, handling buoys and sinkers, requires significant attention to hull buoyancy and deck equipment. Go one step further and include a real towing capability, as required for barge work and/or dredging with a towed plough, and one has, in the most simplistic terms, plotted the development of most modern work vessels of the ‘MultiCat’ type.
MultiCat’, an almost generic term for pontoon style work vessels, was first introduced by Damen Shipyards at Hardinxveld in the 1970s and is derived from ‘Multipurpose work vessel powered by Caterpillar engines’. Many Damen ‘MultiCats’ produced in those early days are still giving sterling service with marine contractors, port authorities and dredging companies. Craft of a similar type are now being produced by specialist workboat builders worldwide and in very recent years have become much larger, more sophisticated and versatile.
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