Recent deliveries include a RIB for a Michigan research organisation, a Russian inland buoy tender, and a pilot boat for a Papua New Guinea operator. Construction continues on India's new ocean research vessel. Lastly, the NOAA has begun seeking interested bidders for a research vessel procurement project.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is inviting bids on a new class II research vessel for operations at the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Sanctuary in Oahu, Hawaii.
Quotations under the amended solicitation are due at noon EST on Friday, September 25. The competition is unrestricted and is expected to produce a purchase order on a firm-fixed-price basis, with delivery required within 12 months of the award.
The new and unused monohull must be no longer than 35 feet (11 metres) and no wider than 10 feet (three metres), including fendering. The maximum draught should be 2.5 feet (0.8 metre), excluding the engines.
The boat will carry science and dive parties of up to nine people. Its layout must feature a forepeak, an enclosed cabin containing a control station and an aft working deck, and it must accommodate personnel and up to 2,800 pounds (1,300 kg) of mission equipment stored at deck level.
Boatbuilder Vita Power has handed over a new electric rigid inflatable boat (RIB) to the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center (FRIC), a research facility in Traverse City, Michigan.
The RIB will be FRIC's research and training vessel, operating from Discovery Pier on West Grand Traverse Bay, where the facility is now under construction.
The 24-foot (7.3-metre) vessel arrived at Discovery Pier Marina earlier this month and is now operating from the dock, where it charges using pierside infrastructure at the marina.
The RIB will be the centre’s on-water platform for hands-on workforce training, freshwater research and the testing and demonstration of new technologies in real Great Lakes conditions. It will be paired with an Outland Technology remotely operated vehicle (ROV) so the centre can carry out inspection, sampling and sensor work both on and below the surface.
The RIB's open-deck layout gives researchers and dive teams a clear working platform while the centre console leaves space fore and aft for sampling gear, dive equipment and ROV launch and recovery.
Papua New Guinea's PNG Ports Corporation will soon welcome a new pilot boat into service.
Musangu II is the fourth of five pilot boats delivered to PNG Ports through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific. The vessel is completing the final safety and registration checks before entering service.
The boat was built by Norman R. Wright and Sons of Brisbane, Australia. She is a sister of Siabo, which was delivered to the same operator in 2023.
The Russian Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transportation (Rosmorrechflot) has commenced operations of a newly delivered buoy tender.
Like her sisters under Project 3050.1A, Leonid Komarov (Леонид Комаров) was built by Kingisepp Machine-Building Plant of Saint Petersburg. Design work was undertaken by R-Flot subsidiary Gorky Central Design Bureau.
The vessel will be used primarily for maintenance of buoys and other aids to navigation in inland waterways.
Her secondary duties will include monitoring of water depths and handling of non-self-propelled barges of 400 tonnes displacement or lower via towing or pushing.
India's Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers has launched a new ocean research vessel (ORV) ordered by the country's National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR).
The launch of Sagar Manthan came barely five months after the laying of the keel.
Upon completion, the vessel will have an LOA of 89.5 metres, a beam of 18.8 metres, a depth of 12.5 metres, and a gross tonnage of 5,900. The propulsion will deliver a speed of 14 knots at 90 per cent MCR.
The ORV will be capable of underway swath multi-beam as well as geophysical seismic surveys in coastal seas and deep waters.
