Page 53: of Marine News Magazine (March 2020)

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VESSELS

NOAA to Order New Research Ships in 2020

The U.S.’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- tration (NOAA) said it expects to award contracts for the construction of two new oceanographic ships by the end of the year.

Once in service, the new large oceangoing, multimission research vessels will support missions ranging from general oceanographic research and exploration to marine life, cli- mate and ocean ecosystem studies, NOAA said.

A NOAA spokesperson told Marine News that Dakota

Creek Industries, Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors and

VT Halter Marine are currently conducting design work and that each is in the running to be awarded build con- tracts later this year.

Target launch dates will be determined after the ship- building contracts are awarded, NOAA said.

The two newbuilds will be named after long-serving

NOAA vessels Oceanographer (active from 1966 to 1996) and sister ship Discoverer (active from 1967 to 1996).

The new Oceanographer will be homeported in Honolulu, while the homeport for Discoverer remains to be determined.

Credit: NOAA

New Boat for Texas Parks and Wildlife

All American Marine, Inc. (AAM) launched an aluminum catamaran built to patrol Texas state and federal waters for the law enforcement division of Texas Parks and Wildlife.

The 80- by 27-foot (OAL) Captain Murchison features twin CAT C18 ACERT D Engines, with Hamilton Jet

HM 521 waterjets and is built to USCG Subchapter T standards. It is also the ? rst vessel in North America to feature Hamilton Jet’s innovative Advanced Vessel Con- trol (AVX) system. The new AVX features include both a station keeping and a JETanchor positioning system. Ad- ditional vessel features include a DJI Mavic Drone inte- grated to the helm displays, as well as a FLIR M400 XR

High resolution Thermal Imaging video with tracking to assist with patrol duties in the Gulf of Mexico.

The state-of-the-art hydrofoil assisted vessel, from

Teknicraft Design, will combine innovative design features critical to modern maritime law enforcement.

One innovative feature is the inclusion of Teknicraft ’s Rap- id rigid hull in? atable boat (RHIB) launching system inte- grated into the stern of the vessel to increase safety and reduce the time and manpower required to deploy the RHIB. It will allow for deployment and retrieval in under 1 minute. The

RHIB is a 20-foot Willard with a 170 HP Volvo Diesel En- gine, and also features Hamilton Jet Propulsion.

Credit: All American Marine 53 www.marinelink.com MN