R/V Falkor debuting as a globally capable ocean research vessel

R/V Falkor is a 82.9 m (272 ft) LOA ship originally built in 1981 in Lübeck, Germany as a fishery protection vessel.  Schmidt Ocean Institute is now refitting R/V Falkor in Wewelsfleth, Germany into a globally capable ocean research vessel, with the delvery planned for early 2012.  

R/V Falkor has a beam of 13 m (42.7 ft), freeboard of 2.275 m (7.5 ft), and draft of 5.8 m (19 ft), including the sonar gondola. R/V Falkor general arrangement is available for review in PDF format - 3.2MB. The main propulsion power totals 5,882 kW or 7,888 hp.  Post-refit R/V Falkor cruising range and endurance are estimated at 8,000 nautical miles and 28 days of steaming respectively (fuel-limited), at cruising speed of 12 kts.  On-board accommodations will be sufficient for up to 40 persons, including 20 crew members required for operations at sea. The remaining 20 berths will be available to accommodate mission-specific scientific and technical personnel.   At least two SOI marine technicians will be joining the future R/V Falkor missions to operate and maintain scientific equipment and facilitate interaction between the science party and the crew.

R/V Falkor will be able to support the following operations:

• Over-the-side deployments:
  • Deployments over the transom with a 20,000 lbs SWL A-Frame using the Hydro/CTD winch or add-on mission-specific winches
  • Deployments over the side with a 7,000 lbs SWL J-Frame
  • Two HIAB 301-4 articulating cranes provide at least 2 ton weight lifting coverage across all aft working decks
• CTD/ Hydro winch operations:
  • 10,000 m of 0.322” EM wire or 3/8” mechanical wire
  • A flag sheave that allows routing the cable to either J-Frame, A-Frame, or HIAB 301-4.
• Laboratory work in a 32 sq.m wet lab on the Main Deck equipped with:
  • -80 C, -20 C, +4 C sample preservation equipment
  • Ducted fume hood
  • US electrical power outlets (all clean power, up to 100 kVA total)
    • 120 VAC 60 Hz
    • 208 VAC 60 Hz
    • 208 VAC 60 Hz
  • European electrical outlets (unregulated plus up to 25 kVA clean power)
    • 240 VAC 50 Hz
    • 400 VAC 50 Hz
  • Hot and cold fresh water at sinks,
  • Uncontaminated and incubator sea water supply
  • De-ionized water can be made available with an add-on de-ionizer (mission-specific)
  • Compressed air outlets
  • Chilled sea water supply (planned)
  • Remote scientific computer system (SCS) workstations (planned)
• Laboratory work in the dry lab area (28 sq.m ROV / Echosounder Control Room, 26 sq.m Lab / Office Space, 17 sq.m Data on the Main Deck), equipped with:
  • +4 C and, optionally, -20C sample preservation equipment
  • US electrical power outlets (all clean power, up to 100 kVA total)
  • European electrical outlets (unregulated plus up to 25 kVA clean power)
  • Compressed air outlets
  • Remote SCS workstations (planned)
• Working deck operations requiring:
  • Up to 500 kW of unregulated electrical power from a dedicated 3-phase, 50 Hz, 395 VAC generator
  • Arbitrary additional equipment mounted to the aft deck and staging bay deck surfaces using a 2 ft. x 2 ft. bolt pattern.
  • US electrical power outlets (no greater than 100 kVA total)
  • European electrical outlets (unregulated plus up to 25 kVA clean power)
  • Hot and cold fresh water outlets
  • Incubator sea water outlets
  • Compressed air outlets
  • Remote scientific computer system (SCS) access via LAN
• Deployments of light ROVs (e.g. Phantom or similar) or other small instruments from the starboard launch and recovery area 399 (17.7 sq.m on the Main Deck) with the adjacent HIAB 301-4 crane on the Upper Deck
• Acoustic research using the following equipment:
  • Kongsberg EM 302 1x1 degree multi-beam echo sounder
  • Kongsberg EM 710 0.5x1 degree multi-beam echo sounder
  • Kongsberg EA 600 single beam echo sounder, 12/38/120/200 kHz
  • Simrad EK60 fishery research system, 18/38/70/120/200/710 kHz
  • Simrad SH90 high definition omnidirectional fishery sonar, 114 kHz
  • Knudsen CHIRP 3260 sub-bottom profiling system, 12kHz
  • Teledyne Ocean Surveyor Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, 75 kHz
  • Teledyne Workhorse Mariner ADCP, 300 kHz
• Sub-sea positioning and remote navigation using Sonardyne Ranger 2 ultra-short base line system (USBL) or long base line system (LBL)
• Operations requiring Dynamic Positioning, within +/- 5 meter precision with wind forces up to 25 kts and currents up to 1 kt
• Underway water sampling
  • Wet lab will be equipped with general purpose and uncontaminated sea water outlets. 
  • A Seabird  SBE 21(or SBE 45) thermosalinograph with a remote temperature probe.
• UAV or Helicopter operations
  • 12.6 m diameter commercial rated helideck is suitable for operation of Bell 407 and Eurocopter EC135 helicopter with a MTOW of up to 2,900 kg (6,200 lbs) and any smaller and lighter helicopters
  • helicopter refueling services are not available
  • off-helideck helicopter storage is not available
  • the helideck can support unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launch and recovery operations.
• Weather protected instrument staging bay (30 sq.m.) and workshop (8 sq.m.) adjacent to the main working deck
• Mammal and bird observation using weather protected upper deck areas
• Work boat operations
  • One 6.3 m aluminum hull 350 HP jet-drive SAFE Boats workboat with bow ramp, supported by a dedicated heave compensating launch davit.
  • One 6.0 m RHIB 70 HP outboard drive Zodiac fast rescue boat, supported by a dedicated rescue boat davit.
  • One HIAB 121-2 articulated midship deck crane for launching and recovering add-on workboats supplied by the science party (e.g. Zodiac Mark V)
• Operations and outreach requiring continuous global Internet access, provided via C-Band VSAT.
  • Bandwidth is flexible and can be made sufficient to support HD video streaming.
     

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