Rodriquez Quarterly n. 4.pdf - RODRIQUEZ - Cantieri navali

R O D R I Q U E Z The way we were
THE FAMILY’S FOUNDER
In the 1980’s with the
Lerici Class minehunter,
a new era began in mine
countermeasures.
At that time, Intermarine
had developed
sophisticated technology
that is still at the cutting
edge today.
in the mid-1970’s the Italian Navy decided
it was time to renew their fleet of
mine countermeasure vessels. Mines, as
both defensive and offensive weapons,
were rapidly being developed in terms of
both quantity and quality. Meanwhile, Italy,
due to obvious geographical reasons,
was committed to maintaining stability in
the Mediterranean and felt it needed to
tackle this task with an efficient, modern
Navy.
For the development of a new fleet of
mine countermeasure vessels, the Italian
Navy decided to abandon the traditional
minesweeper concept in favor of the
minehunter which actively seeks out and
neutralizes mines.
The minehunter’s hull had to allow the
vessel to safely approach mines without
activating their sensitive triggering circuits
and, should an explosion occur, they had
to be able to withstand the resulting pressure
and shock-waves, minimizing damage
to both the crew and on-board equipment.
The new minehunter would have to have
a very low noise level (low acoustic signature),
a low magnetic material content
(low magnetic signature) and have a very
high resistance to the shockwave from an
underwater explosion.
Intermarine, which until then had built
small pleasure boats in fiberglass, decided
to address head on the stringent requirements
of the Italian Navy. First and foremost,
the yard identified fiberglass as the
ideal construction material as this is naturally
non-magnetic as well as being a poor
conductor of noise and vibration while at
the same time being very elastic. After a
long period of research, Intermarine developed
an innovative construction technique
for the hull, a single structure without the
traditional stiffeners but with a very thick
outer skin. This construction technique was
co-developed with new types of composite
materials (resins and fibers) that allowed
the development of larger hulls than were
possible with previous fiberglass lamination
techniques.
The structural analysis and tests carried
out on the hull demonstrated that the hull
developed by Intermarine, when subjected
to shockwaves from underwater explosions,
was sufficiently flexible without suffering
permanent deformation or complete
failure.
In order to shorten the production time, Intermarine
designed and constructed a semiautomatic
impregnation machine capable
of determining the ideal quantity of resin
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needed when impregnating the fiberglass
to obtain the optimum mechanical properties
of the finished product. The structure
created in such a way conformed precisely
to the NATO standards for shock-resistance
and low magnetic signature. In addition,
because of the absence of any structural
stiffeners, the hull was easy to repair.
Following this development work, the Italian
Navy decided to commission a new
fleet of minehunters from Intermarine: the
first of class Lerici underwent a long series
of tests that confirmed it fully met all of the
navy’s requirements.
With a length of 49,98 meters, a displacement
of 570 tonnes, a speed of about 14
knots and a crew of 48, the Lerici, was
handed over to the Italian Navy in La
Spezia on 4 May 1985 in the presence of
the then Minister of Defense Senator Giovanni
Spadolini and other important State
representatives. In his speech, the Minister
praised the yard for their proven capabilities
in research and development of high
tech new products as well as the efficiency
and high quality of the ship which would
become the pride and joy of the new fleet
of mine countermeasure vessels for the
Italian Navy.
After the Lerici, Intermarine built three more
minehunters of the same class which were
called Sapri, Milazzo, and Vieste. The very
positive experience of the Lerici class persuaded
the Italian Navy to order another
eight minehunters from Intermarine. This
next series was the Gaeta class which itself
was a natural evolution of the Lerici class.