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Signet Arcturus and Signet Polaris after recently acquiring engine room ventilation specialist Livos Technolo- gies Inc. All the companies involved met at Patti Marine ahead of construction – Dometic, Signet Maritime, Patti Ma- rine, local integrator Prime Mechani- cal and local naval architect Andy Heitman of Building Energy Sciences. Ed Todd explained, “At the early meet- ing, we scrutinized the design, looked at quotes and discussed how we in- stalled similar equipment on other Signet boats. We also analyzed the boat’s architectural characteristics and their effects on heat-load calculation and equipment placement. The Na- val Architect then makes adjustments and changes to the design according to the requirements of Signet and Patti Marine. Although the vessel designer, Robert Allen, will set up the general scope of the vessel, the local relation- ship with the architect is very valuable as they will look at the specifi cs of the Dometic HVAC equipment.” Dometic on Board: Equipment & Personnel Signet Arcturus, a more powerful version of RAmparts 3200 class z- drive tug Signet Weatherly with a very large fuel capacity of 90,000gals, has been fi tted with Dometic’s two-stage 20-ton chilled water system with in- dividual fan coils throughout the ves- sel. On board both Signet Arcturus and Signet Polaris, the equipment will cool the galley, crew mess, captain’s quarters, engineers’ quarters, control room, three crew staterooms, lower deck head and pantry. As with tugs Signet Stars & Stripes and Signet Constellation, the Signet Arcturus pilothouse features glass windows for unobstructed visibility and can become overheated, affect- ing both the crew and electronics. Mounting the air handlers on top of the roof, Dometic further customized its equipment by installing fan coils with DC blowers in the wheelhouse for higher air fl ow and better air dis- tribution to combat the heat. An ad- ditional two-ton fan coil was also added to the package on Arcturus and Polaris. Highly suitable for tugs with limited space, Dometic’s equipment features a compact design, enabling the chillers to be neatly stacked ver- tically or horizontally to best fi t the space available. In terms of engine room ventilation equipment, Dometic Livos supplied the Signet Arcturus with intake mist eliminators for the engine room as well as the fresh air make-up system. It delivered 32-inch diameter, 20 HP axial engine room fans with steel hous- ings, which are controlled manually with Dometic’s central manual con- trol. VFD units and associated electri- cal components are housed in a cus- tom NEMA 4X enclosure. Dometic Livos also supplied a series of in-line duct fans for the auxiliary machinery spaces (4 x 6 in. and 4 x 12 in.). Nathan Farr, OEM Account Man- ager (USA), Dometic Marine, told MarineNews in April, “For this proj- ect, the plan was fairly straight for- ward as to fi tting and installing the equipment to accommodate the de- sign of the tug because of our experi- ence with a similar vessel. Early chal- lenges which commonly arise at the initial stages can include issues with the ducting, which may need re-do- ing, or the arrangement of the grills to ensure suffi cient air distribution. “Once the equipment is ordered, we then made regular checks to see how things are progressing and to dis- WORKBOAT EQUIPMENT May 2014 44 MN MN May14 Layout 32-49.indd 44 4/21/2014 10:33:22 AM
