Photos by Mark Lowell unless otherwise indicated.
R/V Virginia on the Rappahannock River. Photo courtesy of Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS).
On a blustery, sunny morning, the Rappahannock River is a sea of whitecaps from shore to shore as we cross the Robert O. Norris Jr. Bridge. Our destination is the home port for the R/V Virginia at the Ampro Shipyard & Diesel on Carters Cove just upriver in Weems. Even in this protected cove, the 93-foot vessel tugs at its moorings as if eager to depart, its hatchet bow striking an impressive pose alongside tugs and barges moored nearby.
To enter the boat’s interior, we step over a two-and-a-half-foot bulkhead, evidence that this newest research vessel has been designed and built for heavy seas. In fact, the Virginia is the most advanced research craft in her size and class of any boat in the country. Although already a working vessel, formal christening won’t take place until April 2019. Following a year of side-by-side comparisons of the two boats, the Virginia will replace the smaller and soon-to-be decommissioned R/V Bay Eagle, a converted oil rig tender that has been in service at Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS) since 1987.
VIMS scientists send out a trawl net from the rear deck. Photo courtesy of VIMS.
Compared to many other vessels in its class, the Virginia has surprisingly roomy passageways, overheads, and ladders. Clearly, she was designed for civilian personnel more at home on land than at sea. Designed by JMS Architects of Mystic, Connecticut and built by Méridien Maritime Réparation of Québec, Canada, this state-of-the-art research vessel took almost seven years from concept to completion.
The Virginia combines the dreams and desires of VIMS’ scientific community to provide a much improved platform for scientific fisheries surveys in a cost-effective package. For the first time, VIMS researchers can access almost all of the geographic ranges of the fishes they study, many of which summer in the Chesapeake Bay while migrating along the continental shelf in colder weather.
Mate Taylor Moore at the controls of the boat's dynamic positioning system.
The vessel will support VIMS’ Multi-species Fisheries Research program and the Virginia Shark Monitoring and Assessment program among others, as well as taking on external party charters. The week prior, the Virginia was chartered by an engineering firm for the Office of Naval Research to conduct radar and infrared imaging of humpback whales off the Virginia Capes. The vessel’s 2019 calendar is filling fast.
The deck gear on board will enable researchers to perform bathymetric and seismic surveys, deep-water plankton surveys, and coring operations using its stern and side-mounted cranes that can deploy trawl nets, dredges, scientific buoys, and the new generation of robotic vehicles, ROVs (remotely operated underwater vehicles) and AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles). The state-of-the-art dynamic positioning system allows the boat to return to the same sampling stations month after month, year after year to provide unbiased data findings.
The boat's well-equipped galley.
With a large working deck, 500 square feet of wet and dry laboratory spaces, and comfortable berths, the boat can accommodate eight to nine scientists and a crew of three for 12-hour days or seven scientists and five crewmen for 24/7 operations. With the ability to desalinize sea water into fresh, potable water via reverse osmosis, the only limitations for extended voyages are its food supplies. With a well-equipped galley, the staff takes turns preparing meals.
CAPTAIN JOHN OLNEY, JR.
For Captain John Olney, Jr., the Virginia is his weekday office while tied up at the dock. A graduate of James Madison University and former charter fishing boat captain out of Hatteras, NC, Olney has been a VIMS boat captain for ten years, captaining the R/V Bay Eagle. Brought on board during the early stages of the design process, Olney and his crew provided input into the propulsion and control systems necessary to optimize the boat’s performance and fuel consumption. He captained the Virginia on its maiden voyage from Canada.
“We took delivery the last week of September 2018. We came out the St. Lawrence and came through the north side of Nova Scotia and brought it down the coast in just eight days, running 24 hours with a six-man crew working 12-hour shifts,” Olney recalls. “On one occasion we saw 40-knot winds and eight to ten-foot swells during the trip and the boat handled the rough seas really well. You couldn’t work in conditions like that, but you can transit if you are forced to.”
R/V Virginia on her mooring at Ampro Shipyard in Weems.
The Virginia has seen limited duty since arrival at home port, since the crew is still commissioning various aspects of the vessel for licensing purposes. “We just received our Letter of Designation as a research vessel from the Coast Guard in January,” explains Olney. “A research vessel must comply with a lot of laws pertaining to trawl nets and fisheries methods that require proper licenses and permits. We are still commissioning some of the onboard systems as well, such as the dynamic positioning system and the automatic trawling system, so we are still in the early phases of preparing to do full science work.”
Its propulsion system is unique. “Two main engines are tied to a single transmission and that allows us to run on both engines when we need full power or hydraulics or run on just one engine when we’re transiting, which saves a lot of fuel. It has an omni directional bow thruster, triple rudders, and a twin-diesel, single-screw, controllable pitch propeller that can hold the boat within a meter of a desired location, which definitely maximizes our data accuracy,” Olney points out.
Captain John Olney, Jr., and Mate Taylor Moore on the bridge.
“The downside of this engine/transmission synchronization is that the main propulsion shaft can only turn in one direction. So, we change the pitch of our propeller in order to achieve forward or reverse. It’s quite unique. The plus side is that it gives us infinite control of speeds. Top forward speed is approximately 13 knots, but it burns a lot of fuel. Nine to nine-and-a-half knots is ideal cruise speed for our hull’s displacement.”
ENGINEERING
Keith Mayer’s enthusiasm makes it plain he is most at home below decks in the engine room. Touring the warren of pipes, valves, gages, engines, transmission, generators, and control panels every hour, he is quick to spot any problem that may arise.
Mayer has worked at VIMS for five years, starting as the Mate on the Bay Eagle. When he came on board, the new boat was just in the planning stages, so he participated in the entire process, from concept, design, and construction. Staying ahead of the project by obtaining his necessary licenses, he arrived on the Virginia with a 100-ton captain’s license.
Traveling back and forth to Canada while the boat was under construction, Mayer spent the last three months of construction full time at the shipyard, working seven days a week, often working 13 hours a day doing pre-inspections and commissioning the various systems. The working relationship between VIMS engineering and Méridien Maritime Réparation was second to none.
Engineer Keith Mayer at home in the engine room.
Mayer has a variety of skill sets that suit him well as the Virginia’s chief engineer. He has a background in machine shop work as well as HVAC installation and repair. He has owned a construction company that utilized heavy equipment and has spent a great deal of time on the water.
“Bringing the boat down from the shipyard was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Meyer enthuses. “To see flat steel on the floor in a shipyard transformed into this awesome vessel and bringing it home was an incredible experience! As far as the boat rides and handles, I wouldn’t change a thing. Kudos to the designer!”
MATE
Taylor Moore worked as a marine tech for the Multispecies Research Group at VIMS before coming on board as Mate. Already a licensed boat captain for smaller crafts, Moore has not yet qualified to captain a boat the size of the Virginia, but plans to do so at some future date. He worked on the Bay Eagle for four years before being offered the position of Mate on the new vessel.
Moore seems to be a jack-of-all-trades, standing watch, assisting in the engine room, and maintaining the boat’s impressive array of electronics and advanced technology. “I’m sort of a floater,” he laughs, “wherever I’m needed that’s where I go. With just a three-man crew there’s a lot of overlap. And having worked with the scientists in my previous position, I understand their needs.”
VIMS logo on boat’s stack.
Moore is the technology guru on board, keeping the computers up and running, monitoring the various systems, keeping the scientists networked, and is the expert when it comes to the boat’s radar and dynamic positioning system. He is in charge of the boat’s electrical and networking systems that can handle torrents of data collected by both onboard and field sensors and lab instruments. He was shocked when he first stepped on board by the boat’s size and the level of systems sophistication. Having worked in construction while in high school, he could only envision what the boat might look like based on drawings and warehouse photos. The real thing has surpassed his expectations.
As we step ashore, the slight movement we perceived onboard ceases, but it’s clear that in both fair and foul weather the Virginia represents the future of bay and ocean exploration by VIMS scientists and external parties. The vessel is easily adaptable to a variety of scientific projects and research such as environmental impact studies, the servicing of ocean-observing systems, off-shore energy exploration, core sampling, and species surveys. If the crew’s expectations and observations hold true, the Virginia may serve as a model for others to emulate.