The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (Nederlands Instituut voor Zeeonderzoek; NIOZ) has taken delivery of its newest research vessel following a formal hand-over from Spain's Armon Shipyard.
Anna Weber-van Bosse was built to a design by Netherlands-based C-Job Naval Architects. She will replace Pelagia, a research vessel that has been with the NIOZ for 35 years.
The NIOZ said the official transfer of the vessel from Armon took place earlier this week in between sea trials off the coast of Spain. The vessel will soon sail for the Netherlands with NIOZ personnel on board.
Anna Weber-van Bosse has an LOA of 80 metres, a beam of 17 metres, a summer draught of five metres, a gross tonnage of 3,481, and accommodation for 16 crewmembers and 30 scientists. The vessel is fitted with a DP2 system while her hull has been strengthened to ice class 1C standard.
The vessel boasts a selection of laboratories including wet and dry labs, a CTD hangar, a large working deck, and a drop keel and gondola that can house larger sensors. Her electronics include single- and multi-beam echosounders and underwater positioning sensors from Kongsberg Maritime and acoustic Doppler current profilers from Nortek.
The propulsion system includes generators supplied by ABC. The generators are EU Stage V-compliant and can be configured in the future to permit operation on methanol.