Turkish interest in special solutions
A number of recent Turkish research vessels have gone for a Sea-Bird – MacArtney oceanographic instrumentation and winch combination: Hans Jorgen Hansen of MacArtney puts it down to reliability “and word getting around”.
Conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) packages often include auxiliary units that measure dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, fluorescence and an altimeter, plus a sampler to collect water for later analysis.
These devices are usually combined on a carousel although the scale can vary widely so it’s useful that operators can have a winch system matched to it that gives them a choice of speed, capacity, motor size and pull said Mr Hansen. However, these compact units gain by a particularly appropriate manufacture: they have “a very robust, stainless steel construction mounted in a frame so that these packages will stand up to being used on a moveable, plug-and-play basis” he explained. More, the winches have an electric driven level wind for securing consistent cable spooling and ‘soft start’ which aids to protect the cable during system operation.
No less than four Turkish research vessels have taken delivery of the MacArtney and Sea-Bird combination so far.
The first was the RV Tubitak , operated by Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council. This vessel will be used for monitoring and investigating marine pollution, be able to examine oilfields and pipelines and also be able to take on incident support operations. All these requirements have resulted in a large winch and CTD package including a water sampler system holding a dozen 8 litre or 5 litre bottles and a string of additional devices including a transmissometer and a scalar radiometer. The carousel will be handled by a Cormac Q5 winch with 3,000m capacity and alongside this, there is a second Cormac Q5 system with 2,000m of cable for hydrographic sampling.
The second and third vessels were the Seydi Ali Reis and the Arama1, used for oceanographic and fisheries research in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea respectively. Both of these will be have a full CTD package plus 12 position water sampling carousel, with Cormac winches loaded with 1,000m of line.
The system for the fourth vessel is even more extensive with methane, hydrogen sulphide and PAR sensors, on top of the basic system which includes a 12 bottle sampler. The total winch package for this vessel included three Cormac Q winches for handling the CTD profiler, a side scan sonar system and a sound velocity profiler.
Hans Jorgen Hansen added that “the Cormac Q winches have been almost written into Sea-Bird Scientific’s instrumentation package”, an enviable position to be in. Considering the Turkish research vessel take up, it’s a partnership that looks like running on and on.
By Stevie Knight
