WATCH: Volvo Penta powers up police vessels

The Inboard Performance System (IPS) was launched at a two-day press event in Sweden last August, attended by Maritime Journal.

The system was installed in Impresser, a Crew Transfer Vessel operated by the Swedish firm Northern Offshore Services (N-O-S), which signed a partnership agreement with Volvo Penta at the same event.

Key features include its vertically integrated dashboard, joystick, engines, propulsion and drive, entirely controlled by the in-house software.

The selling features of the system are its manoeuvrability and efficiency as well as performance, and this, says Volvo Penta, is why the Australian water police selected the equipment for three new vessels.

One has in fact been operating in New South Wales with the IPS since August, but all three have now been officially commissioned.

Australian boat designer and builder Norman R Wright & Sons worked with Volvo Penta distributor Seamech to come up with a vessel that needed to ‘meet the stringent speed, range and size requirements of modern marine law enforcement’.

“The Volvo Penta IPS helm-to-propeller design enables manoeuvrability and joystick functionality you don’t normally get in conventional drive shaft boats. It’s a big reason why we chose Volvo Penta IPS,” said Adam Evripidou, senior naval architect at Norman R Wright.

The D6-IPS 500 IPS has an in-line, 6-cylinder D6 engine with up to 280kW power (around 380hp). It can run on HVO100 fuel as well as conventional diesel.

Evripidou added that the 12m vessel that has been operating for eight months had accomplished search and rescue operations in five-metre waves, which would be a challenge for larger vessels.

Last week, all three vessels – Sea Hawk, Sea Dragon and Sea Eagle – were blessed and launched by the minister for police and counter terrorism, the commissioner and the marine area command crime manager in New South Wales.