Kongsberg Completes Oceanographic Vessel Refit

Kongsberg Maritime has completed the mid-life refit of the hydrographic survey equipment onboard the (Oceanographic Research Vessel) ‘B.I.O Hesperides’. The vessel, originally commissioned in 1991 and based in the Antarctic seas for 6 months a year, was one of the first large survey equipment installations for KONGSBERG. Likewise, this is the first full mid-life refit of survey equipment carried out by the company.

The survey package supplied and installed by Kongsberg Maritime was based on the EM120 1°x2° multibeam echosounder. The EM120 is a tried and tested multibeam sounder for deep water mapping with the 12 kHz operating frequency being the optimum choice in order to achieve efficient mapping of larger ocean areas. However, the system can be applied to mapping of shallower water areas, and can cover a swath of 6 times the water depth. Kongsberg Maritime also supplied an EA600 hydrographic echosounder and a PS18 parametric sub-bottom profiler as part of the hydroacoustic survey package. SIMRAD bolstered the survey package by supplying its industry standard scientific echosounder, the EK60. In addition SIMRAD supplied a suite of new navigation equipment for the bridge including an AP50 autopilot, EN250 navigation echosounder and Skipper DL857 doppler log for speed along track measurements.

Kongsberg Maritime completed the refit with the new Seapath 200 heading, attitude and positioning sensors. Seapath 200 is an integrated navigation sensor ideal for a range of applications including hydrographic survey and oceanographic research, where accurate compensation of multibeam echosounders, hydroacoustic positioning systems and ADCPs or vessel motion monitoring are required. The Seapath can also be used for continuous calibration of gyrocompasses onboard a vessel.

“The project was based on the replacement of the vessel’s existing survey equipment but several other KONGSBERG product groups were also involved,” says Vicente Carrasco, Sales Manager, Simrad Spain. “The added value of this close co-operation for KONGSBERG Customers is that we can offer the Full Picture. Instead of using several suppliers for different systems, the ‘B.I.O Hesperides’, benefited by getting its survey, navigation and position reference systems from just one.”