Spain’s Freire Shipyard has signed a contract with the French national institute for ocean science IFREMER for the construction of a new vessel for the French Oceanographic Fleet. It will be operated by IFREMER for the benefit of the French scientific community.
The French-flagged vessel will have a length over all of 40.3 metres and reduced draft. It will deal with all disciplines of oceanography in Atlantic coastal areas: geosciences and paleoclimatology, physical oceanography and biogeochemistry, biological oceanography, and ecosystem functioning, from the coastline to the continental shelf.
The newbuild will also perform fisheries-related duties on the continental shelf and will accommodate a crew of 12 people and 10 scientists, allowing for training campaigns with teachers and students onboard.
A wide range of energy-savings technologies and low-consumption solutions will be incorporated into the vessel, from the hull design, the design of the power plant, the power distribution system, the heat recovery system, the level from thermal insulation to the efficiency of air conditioning.
The diesel electric propulsion system will combine three main variable speed generator sets (suitable for operation on biodiesel), two shaft lines driven by electric motors and a DC electric distribution system, which together with a battery pack will offer great performance of the power plant, optimisation of consumption, good redundancy, and outstanding acoustic performance (not only in terms of compliance with BV COMF 2 class notation but also with DNV SILENT-F standard).
The dynamic positioning system and the electric bow thruster will facilitate the manoeuvrability of the boat.
It will have an oceanographic marine telescopic main crane at the stern for marine use designed to launch and to recover scientific equipment (corer, buoys etc) and general handling on the aft part of the vessel. In addition, she will have a type A stern gantry, a T-type lateral gantry and a telescopic rail beam for CTD manoeuvring.
For fishing operations, the vessel will also have two trawling winches and a removable net drum.
