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SEAARK MARINE: LIGHTER BOATS FOR HEAVIER MISSIONS For the past few years, military craft has been required to be as light as possible, said Ken McFalls, Vice President of Sales for SeaArk Marine, Inc. A lighter boat is trans- portable by air, capable of taking on armament for the hull and pilothouse and has greater cargo capacity. “In the past you would make the boat heavier than it needed to be because you knew it was going into government service,” with the view that an all-around heavier boat would be more durable, McFalls said. But now, he said, “we can’t get any bigger or heavier, so we have to get lighter.” McFalls said SeaArk makes their boats lighter by utilizing different materials and lightening the hull plate where a half-inch thickness is not needed. The government’s mission requirements for the boats have changed over the years as well. “Boats have to be much more multi-purpose than they used to be,” McFalls said. They have to be able to transition from one applica- tion to another. Being multi-missioned makes it easier to respond to any event, and in order to do that, McFalls said, you “outfit one boat to handle five jobs,” which can make staying light a challenge. SeaArk meets that challenge by “taking away the fluff and leaving what’s required for the job,” McFalls said. That may mean eliminating insulation and aesthetic lines in some place. “They don’t want it to be pretty, they want it to be functional.” But speaking about the combat craft market, McFalls said, “business is extremely slow. Three years ago we were RIBS & Combat Craft By Raina Clark For the 2011 Combat Craft Annual, MarineNews solicitied insights from boatbuilding executives as to how the market for small vessels in military and paramilitary applications is changing, with insights on how the procurement process and how vessel specifications is changing. The Navy’s 34-ft RAM built by SeaArk 34 MN May 2011
