Page 52: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2021)

Vessels

Innovative new ships, boats & technologies to facilitate subsea work

As the boat approached its twentieth With the skillful hands of the yard’s me-

Elakha: Repowering a year of operation, the team at OSU had chanics, David Stoker and Ted Mandell,

Valued Research Vessel

Ocean science is in high demand by to consider the best mid-life upgrade. things came together nicely.” scientists studying ocean acidi? ca- The existing 600 hp CAT 3176 had giv- “After the new engine and gears were tion, wave energy, seabed composition, en good service and they considered a installed, new Racor’s, fuel lines, raw changing water temperatures, ? sh popu- rebuild. Writing about the selection pro- water-cooling systems, muf? er and ex- lations and dozens of other research cess, the Elakha’s master, Captain Jeff haust all went in. In addition to these up- projects. The Oregon State University Lawrence, describes the process: grades, new Glendinning ECS controls (OSU) has a proud history in the ? eld. “…As part of this evaluation we con- were installed as well during this time,

The wide variety of research project re- tacted Scott Graff at Curry Marine. In as well as signi? cant re-wiring from the quire a variety of vessels. just a few short days Scott came up engine to the engine brainbox, and up to

One boat that has made large contribu- with a great package for our project that the controls in the wheelhouse. With a tions to research is the 54 by 16.5-foot checked every box on our needs list. We good amount of assistance from Scott

Elakha which was built in 2001 at Roze- decided to go with a new tier 3 Cum- Hat? eld from the shipyard, the Elakha ma Boat Works of Mount Vernon Wash- mins QSM 11 610hp engine A ZF360A crew removed all the old wiring for the ington. Showing design in? uences of a 2.44:1 marine gear and Glendinning CAT engine and ran new wiring for the typical forward house west coast style ECS controls.” Cummins engine.

? shing boat, the Elakha’s after deck is “On February 28, 2020 the R/V Elakha “Along with this new wiring, the set up for retrieving data from the ocean, made her way up the Yaquina river to the Elakha received some dash control up- although some ? sh research is also pos- Port of Toledo Boat Yard at Toledo Or- grades as well in the form of a more sible. Some of the most common types egon to be hauled out and the re-power modern engine monitoring system with of work for the Elakha include dive op- begun. After a week’s time the old en- a more comprehensive assortment of erations, acoustic studies, glider deploy- gine and gears were out, and we started readouts and information for the main ment and recovery, box coring, pro? ler to ? t the new equipment to the boat. engine. After everything the installa- deployment and recovery, plankton and There was plenty of fabrication that had tions were complete The Elakha happily other tows, crab pot deployment and re- to be done before the new QSM11 en- splashed back into the Yaquina river and covery and CTD casts. gine and the ZF gears could be installed. we arranged for a test run.

Damen completes work on German

Diving Bell Ship.

The new diving bell ship will operate on the Rhine and its tributaries.

Photo: Damen 52 January/February 2021

MTR #1 (50-63).indd 52 1/25/2021 8:28:13 AM