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HT1000 Jets Enter Service

24th March 2009

HamiltonJet’s Largest Waterjet Units Enter Service


HamiltonJet’s newest and largest waterjet propulsion units have completed trails and entered service in a 55m Korean Coast Guard patrol vessel.  The first pair of HT1000 waterjets, each with an impeller diameter of 1.2m, were delivered to Korea early in 2008, with the boat launched and sea trials conducted in November.  The vessel exceeded all target speeds during trials.

Each of the Korean Coast Guard (KCG) 300 tonne class vessels is fitted with a pair of fully controllable HT1000 waterjets, as well as a pair of slightly smaller HamiltonJet HM811 boost jets (no steering or reverse control).  All four waterjets are driven by 3700hp MTU engines and provide a maximum boat speed of over 36 knots.  At full speed each HT1000 waterjet pumps 11 cubic meters of water per second.

New Zealand-based waterjet manufacturer HamiltonJet has been supplying waterjets to the KCG for many years.  “Currently the KCG have over 120 vessels fitted with HamiltonJet waterjet units,” says Mike Shearer, Global Sales & Marketing Manager for HamiltonJet.  “For this project a much larger waterjet than those in the existing product range was required to allow the vessel to patrol at over 20 knots on the outer jet units alone.”  The central boost jets are only used for high speed operations. The HT1000 was designed specifically for this, and is a different hydrodynamic design from HamiltonJet’s other waterjet models.


HamiltonJet Technical Manager Phil Rae says the pump design for the HT1000 was developed using HamiltonJet’s in-house computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, and a complete scaled prototype unit was tested in the company’s high speed test boat and hydrodynamic test facility. “For the full scale unit, the design, structural analysis, simulation and production tooling development was almost exclusively computer based,” says Mr Rae.  “This allowed for ‘virtual’ trial assembly and seamless manufacturing integration.”

In manufacturing the HT1000, HamiltonJet has expanded its aluminium and stainless steel casting facilities, and developed new casting technology to improve product quality and reduce manufacturing time.

To date HamiltonJet has delivered four shipsets of HT1000 waterjets to the shipyard in Pusan, Korea.  Contract negotiations are underway for additional waterjets to be delivered over the next two years.  HamiltonJet is also assessing the viability of other HT series waterjets for workboat projects around the world.


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