The Yachting press has recently lit up with news of the conversion or the refit of this offshore
survey vessel called the Volstead Surveyor at Damen shipyards in Rotterdam. This vessel was
originally built in 2010 at Faro shipyard in Vigo Spain is extremely capable and has built a number
of these offshore scientific vessels and support vessels. A lot of these vessels end up being built
for Norwegian, customers so typically these are very rugged all-weather vessels. They're
expected to operate 365 days a year. They have a number of redundant systems. They have the latest
in terms of azipod propulsion fully functional heli decks with hangars. They support a large
crew complement in the case of the Volstead surveyor it is outfitted for 62 souls on board
and will have a long endurance to stay at sea for more than a month. It's propelled by diesel
electric with Rolls-Royce azipods. For power it's got four Cat 3516b generators. It has a
top speed of 16.5 knots. It was originally fitted with a 70-ton crane. It looks like that's been
downgraded to a 40-ton for the purposes of the refit. It came out of the Faro shipyard
at 85.3 meters. It now seems to be 87 meters but I'm not sure where that extra length came from
as the transom appears to be the same. So American billionaire Ray Dahlia has done a lot of important
ocean exploration with his first conversion which was Alusia He works with James Cameron,
the famous director from the Titanic. They brought this vessel to the Damen shipyard in Rotterdam to
do this conversion and all the upgrades.Steve Gresham was involved in laying out the new
interior But basically it is the same hull form. They maintained the capabilities of the original
vessel. It had a lot of built-in advantages for them. It had the big crane which they downgraded
from 70 tons to 40 tons according to the specs. It has a good speed at 16.5 knots with the azipods.
It's diesel electric of course . I is ice class It looks like they may have
added to that helipad because they've got a little more length than the vessel was originally built
at. It also now has a substantial a-frame on the transom for the launch of their submersibles
and submarine gear. They have some specially built Tritons with all the support equipment and
repair equipment on board. The full film studios they can do live broadcasts up to the satellites
and around the world to show exactly what they're doing in real time.
They have onboard laboratories which are quite extraordinary to be able to do their scientific
work without having to go to shore. Also on board, a number of both piloted and autonomous underwater
drones. It is touted as the most advanced research ship in the world and we'll have to see if that
title holds with the imminent launch of the 600 foot research ship REV in Norway but in any case
this is one of the sexiest and most exciting conversions that we've seen. This seems to be
part of an ongoing trend that is gathering some momentum. The pace is definitely picking up on the
conversion of commercial vessels and particularly these scientific and research vessels in recent
years and this is a great trend and hopefully there will be more people undertaking this work
and helping out the different scientific organizations that are working on ocean
conservation. At the yacht channel we celebrate these efforts and we look forward to bringing
you more reports on research ships and other efforts for ocean conservation in the future
and that concludes today's podcast from THE YACHT
CHANNEL and we look forward to seeing you here again next week