ONR Proposal for 2017 Ship Operations on R/V SAVANNAH

This proposal requests funds to support ship time and technical services on the Research Vessel Savannah for the NRL/SSC project entitled, ~Smart Glider Teams for Rapid Update of Local Analysis~ under the Office of Naval Research Broad Agency Announcement #N00014-17-S-B001. This project has requested a vessel to support glider work off the North Carolina coast in May/June 2017. The objective of this research is to deploy teams of gliders off the Cape Hatteras coastal region consisting of at least 2 teams of 2 to 3 gliders each. After one month, the teams of gliders will be recovered. Specified vessel requirements include the use of a ship supplied CTD, a rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB), and routine port calls in and out of project home port of the Duke Marine Laboratory (DUML) in Beaufort, North Carolina. The R/V Savannah is fully equipped to support this research effort. Built at the Maine shipyard of Washburn and Doughty and delivered to the UGA/Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO) in 2001, the 92-foot coastal research vessel was designed to provide researchers with a versatile platform to conduct primarily federally-funded oceanographic research and educational activities in the southeastern U.S. Funded partially through the National Science Foundation with scheduling and support from the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) the Savannah has served oceanographers needs for the last 16 years while maintaining a safe and effective platform. The vessel provides a crew of six to maintain 24-hr operations and has years of experience with glider deployments and recoveries. A ship supplied CTD (SBE 911 plus) will be available for hydrographic profiles. Any user supplied sensors will be integrated with the CTD by the onboard ship Marine Technician. A RHIB and operator will be available to assist glider operations as well as a knuckle boom crane and trawl winch/a-frame overboard handling system. In addition, the ship will supply glider handling equipment, such as, tag poles, snap hooks, and mechanical releases. The ship will require a total of 3 days of non-operational but funded transit time to travel from Skidaway Island Georgia (vessel home port) to DUML and back to Georgia. The cruise is currently scheduled on the UNOLS ship-time request system to depart from the vessels home port on 12 May and return on 10 June (30 days).