Mr. Gerhard Versfeld of Specialised Marine Technologies provided to Technical Procurement Services, a division of The Apple Group, a unique modular powered pontoon for the purposes of offloading approximately four thousand tons of odd form cargo onto the island of Tristan da Cunha during the period December 2008 to May 2009.

Whilst Mr. Versfeld does not specifically hold a formal qualification in Naval Architecture his field experience of the area marine equipment and his direct hands on approach to both designing, building and operating the powered pontoon built for our Tristan da Cunha projects proves that his Qualification By Experience (QBE) comfortably provided us with a marine solution that in fact performed better than other Naval Architect certified Barges utilized during this project.  Mr. Versfeld was given the challenge of designing and supplying this particular powered pontoon in a very short lead time within relatively tight budget constraints.  Our Engineers worked together with Mr. Versfeld and as a team they achieved a remarkable result which added considerably to the success of the projects undertaken at Tristan da Cunha during this Summer period 2008/2009.

This specific vessel (named “Little Denise”) can be seen in the photographs attached to this letter comfortably carrying odd form loads through the narrow straits of the Tristan da Cunha harbour.  Offloading the 4,000 tons of cargo was undertaken over the rail of an 82 meter cargo vessel anchored approximately 400 meters offshore from the island and carried on “Little Denise” into the shallow water harbour.  Calshot harbour at Tristan da Cunha is really a small breakwater for light vessels.  At low tide this harbour has a nominal depth of 1 meter.  It was remarkable that this powered pontoon comfortably carried more than 12 tons regularly into this small harbour at low tide without grounding.

“Little Denise” is powered by 2 x 115 horse power Yamaha Sea Marine Enduro motors which with the correct selection of stainless steel propellers comfortably propelled the loaded powered pontoon in mild swell conditions.

I have no hesitation in recommending the service of Mr. Versfeld and Specialised Marine Technologies to a customer requiring a niche specialised marine solution that requires an application beyond the text book norms.

Yours faithfully

I.R. Mumford (Industrial Engineer)
For Technical Procurement Services