An Cosantóir

26 FLEET SUPPORT GROUP PART 1 There is a trick question often asked, "What is the difference between a ship and a boat?" The answer, which you can file away for your next table quiz, is that "a ship can carry a boat, but a boat cannot carry a ship." The warships of the Irish Naval Service carry boats which enable the undertaking of the wide range of taskings and duties required of them by the state. In fact, without their small boats, their performance of this huge variety of tasks would be impossible. Another fact of a working life at sea, in some of the world's roughest oceans, is that anything which sails out on it will need repair and maintenance. Given the complexity of the modern small boat fleet of the service, it is only possible to carry out relativity routine maintenance on these fast and agile craft while at sea. Larger repairs, more in-depth maintenance and periodic upgrades of these boats are done ashore on Haulbowline in the Fleet Support Group (FSG). FSG is one half of the Mechanical Engineering and Naval Dockyard (MENDY) unit. FSG has been in existence since 1992 as a Support Maintenance Unit within Naval Dockyard under the command of Naval Dockyard Superintendent. Since 2000, the Superintendent is the Officer Commanding (OC) MENDY. The facility moved from the main naval base, where it was located on the West of the island housed in Block 4, to its current location which is commonly known as the Mast House beside the southern end of the naval basin. When FSG was located on the naval base proper, it was titled as Ship Support Group (SSG). Block 4 itself had undergone extensive refurbishment for other uses in 2008, when it suffered a devastating fire mere weeks before it was to come back into regular usage. In the time since the move from SSG, boat maintenance and the technology employed in the boats has changed dramatically in scale, size and scope. The Naval Service small boat operations from the 1970s, were carried out in Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) boarding boats or timber hulled liberty launches, as well as from inflatable Gemini 4.5m boats. From the late 1980s these boats were replaced on all sea-going units with AVON 5.4m Sea-Riders. These Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) were propelled by twin 40hp Yamaha outboard engines. The establishment for such boats increased from twenty units to about forty in 2009, when this fleet was rationalised and updated, pending the launch of new class Patrol Vessels within large capacity, large inboard engined RHIBs. Currently the Naval Service operates a wide variety of RHIBs, in excess of 50 craft, including many remaining Avon Sea-Riders. The AVONs are now only used by the two peacock class patrol vessels, LÉ Orla, and LÉ Ciara, as well as the Naval Reserve. The rest of the small boat fleet includes MST 800, 750, and 680 RHIBs, in varying lengths of 8, 7.5 and 6 metres. There are also Delta RHIBs, with both inboard and outboard engines in the two models, which are varying in length between 7.2, 7 Fleet Support Group FLEET SUPPORT GROUP PART 1 Warship: The definition of a warship under international law is that of a vessel belonging to the armed forces and bearing the external markings distinguishing the character and nationality of such ships, under the command of an officer duly commissioned by the government of that nation, and is manned by a crew that is under regular armed forces discipline. 1 Naval Service Fisheries Inspection Team on board an AVON Sea-Rider

• Cover