Synchronizing…
A public reference property of Baalvion
Open data · every figure carries its source

Naval / patrol
Operated by His Majesty's Naval Service
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Peter Burghart · Public domain · file
Largest in this registry
#20,332
of 84,014 with a recorded tonnage
Largest naval / patrol
#5
of 268 of this type with a recorded tonnage
Largest in its fleet
#1
of 9 in this fleet with a recorded tonnage
In brief
RFA Tiderace is a Tide-class replenishment tanker of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). Ordered from DSME in 2012, she was officially named on 1 December 2016 and was accepted by the Ministry of Defence in June 2017. Tiderace entered service on 2 August 2018.
Tiderace departed her builders in August 2017 bound for the United Kingdom. She arrived at A&P Falmouth, Cornwall on 25 September 2017 for final fitting out with sensitive military equipment prior to UK sea trials and entry into service in 2018. As of April 2024, she was reported to be in "extended readiness" (uncrewed reserve).
Vessel particulars
Every value is as recorded in the source. Blanks are values the source does not hold — none is estimated from a sister ship or a class average.
Identification
Construction
Measurements
In context
Every figure in this section is a count, a rank or a percentile over vessels actually held in this registry — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.
At 29,324 gross tons, RFA Tiderace is the 20,332nd largest of the 84,014 vessels in this registry that report a tonnage. The median across that set is 5,994 GT, so this hull is about 4.9 times the typical vessel on record here. The largest measures 499,167 GT.
Among the 611 naval / patrols held here, it ranks 5th by tonnage — larger than 97% of that group. Their median tonnage is 1,325 GT, and the largest tenth begin at 23,606 GT. The flag most often flown by this group is United States (136 ships). The yard that appears most often against it is Austal, with 33 hulls on record.
United Kingdom is the country of registry for 2,394 vessels in this directory, of which RFA Tiderace is the 252nd largest by tonnage. The most common class under that flag is vessels this registry holds no type classification for (1,835 ships), and the median vessel measures 2,515 GT. Browse every ship flagged United Kingdom.
Narrowing to both dimensions at once, this registry holds 46 naval / patrols flying the United Kingdom flag, of which none is larger than RFA Tiderace.
RFA Tiderace was built in 2018, making it 8 years old. It is one of 1,246 hulls in this registry delivered that year, a cohort whose median tonnage is 18,960 GT; within it this ship is the 495th largest. Across the whole of the 2010s the registry holds 20,111 vessels, median 23,456 GT. The median build year across the entire registry is 1995.
The registry attributes 1,090 vessels to Hanwha Ocean, with a median tonnage of 84,214 GT, delivered between 1982 and 2025. See the rest of that yard’s output.
At 201.0 m overall, RFA Tiderace is 114.5 m longer than the 86.5 m median for naval / patrols on record, with a beam of 28.6 m and a draft of 10.0 m.
IMO numbers are issued in broadly chronological blocks. Within 500 either side of 9655547 this registry holds 55 other vessels, whose median build year is 2013 and which range from 2011 to 2018. That places this hull’s registration in the same part of the series, consistent with its recorded build year of 2018.
Its IMO number, 9655547, carries its own check digit. The first six digits are weighted seven down to two and summed — 9×7 + 6×6 + 5×5 + 5×4 + 5×3 + 4×2 = 167 — and the last digit of that total, 7, must equal the seventh digit, 7. It does, so this number is well formed.
Nearest by tonnage among naval / patrols
| Ship | Built | Gross tonnage |
|---|---|---|
| USNS Comfort | 1976 | 54,367 |
| MV Global Mercy | 2021 | 36,600 |
| IRIS Shahid Bahman Bagheri | — | 36,014 |
| RFA Tiderace (this ship) | 2018 | 29,324 |
| HMS Ark Royal | 1985 | 28,766 |
| State of Maine | 2026 | 25,985 |
Record
Events recorded against this vessel in the source, with the dates the source gives. An event with no date is listed last rather than assigned one.
Class
| Ship | IMO | Flag | Built | Gross tonnage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RFA Tidespring | 9655535 | United Kingdom | 2017 | 29,324 |
| RFA Tidesurge | 9655559 | United Kingdom | 2018 | 29,324 |
| HNoMS Maud | 9703916 | Norway | 2018 | 20,000 |
| RFA Tideforce | 9655561 | United Kingdom | — | 29,324 |
Same fleet
Provenance
Vessel recordWikidata, released under CC0, keyed on this ship’s IMO number.
Written summaryQuoted from RFA Tiderace (A137) on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.
PhotographBy U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Peter Burghart, reused under Public domain.
| Empire State |
| 2023 |
| 25,985 |