All American Marine to Construct Advanced Survey Catamaran
All American Marine, Inc. (AAM) of Bellingham, Wash. and C & C Technologies, Inc. (C & C) of Lafayette, La. announced the commencement of construction of a new catamaran survey vessel. C & C Technologies recently signed a contract with All American Marine to construct a new 134-ft by 37-ft aluminum catamaran for survey operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The two companies have been developing the design concept for the advanced vessel for nearly two years. Teknicraft Design Ltd. of Auckland, New Zealand will provide the engineering and naval architecture services for the design, which is expected to be launched and delivered during the second half of 2011.
C & C worked with AAM and Teknicraft to make the custom designed vessel versatile and accommodating to perform AUV operations, water sampling, side scan sonar and multibeam operations while underway. The vessel will feature a sophisticated survey lab which functions as the control center for data collection during each mission. Transducer wells and deployable sonar struts were thoughtfully integrated into the hull to ensure quality data results. Topside, the working decks feature an impressive configuration of winches, a-frames, and cranes. The vast aft deck also provides suitable space for AUV launch and recovery operations as well as conventional geophysical surveys.
Once complete, the vessel will make approximately 20 trips annually, each lasting 14 days. The hull tonnage will be certified less than 100 gross tons and will include accommodations for 26 research staff and crew. Caterpillar has been selected to supply the prime movers, inclusive of twin C32 ACERT engines and twin C18 ACERT engines. The propulsion configuration will provide a cruise speed of 20 knots with a total of 2153 bhp in each sponson. The pairing of two different engines allows for high speed transit to the survey site using all four engines and a slower survey speed when using only the smaller engines. The C18s are coupled to ZF Marine gears with trolling valves to provide an economical speed range from 3 to 11 knots. Auxiliary power for onboard electrical needs will be supplied by twin Caterpillar C4.4 gensets rated 99ekW.