RV-Princess Royal

Newcastle upon Tyne Research Vessel RV-Princess Royal

A project to be proud of…

MEKY and Dr. A. Mantouvalos have many reasons to be proud of the Princess Royal, first of all it was a challenging project, since the client and the designer was the same person, i.e. the Marine Department of Newcastle upon Tyne University, the builder was ALNMARITEC.

MEKY donated to the University all the design work, and a Greek made OLYMPIC 3.7m RIB to be used on-board the RV as a tender.

This projects though has a greater sentimental value for everyone involved, since all the technology behind the design has been developed in-house there are certain people who have been working really hard and for too long to achieve this result. Being one of the very first people involved in this project Dr. A. Mantouvalos, even before it was proposed, has made a strong impact in the design and thus the boat features one of his Deep-V catamaran hullforms modified and optimised for the specific application even further by some of the world leading experts in marine hydrodynamics. The hullform has been tested in numerous towing tanks in UK and in Turkey and has been further optimised.

Equipment and features
Integral equipment
􀀀 3 tonne hydraulic A-frame
􀀀 2 x 2 tonne trawl winches
􀀀 2 tonne auxiliary winch
􀀀 Hydrographic conducting winch
􀀀 6.5 tonne-m knuckle boom crane
􀀀 Pot hauler
􀀀 Static drift-net hauler
􀀀 1.5m x 1.5m moon pool for ROV
deployment
􀀀 Wave radar
􀀀 Motion sensor
􀀀 Speed log (EM type flush STW)
􀀀 Propeller shaft thrust and torque gauges
􀀀 150mm propeller observation windows
􀀀 Boroscope apertures
􀀀 Hydrophones at bow
Marine science equipment
􀀀 6 x 5 l Rosette water sampler with
integral CTD unit
􀀀 Coupled, or independent, fast repetitionrate
flurometers and C-DOM sensors
􀀀 Scientific Meteorological package
􀀀 Day grab and Van Veen grab
􀀀 Range of static and towed fishing gears
􀀀 Underwater stills and video cameras
􀀀 In-line thermosalinograph
􀀀 Towed Side-scan sonar
􀀀 Movement compensating Marine balance
􀀀 Laboratory PCs
􀀀 Onboard microscope & camera

Research Vessel
Capabilities
􀀀 Low and high speed (> 20 knots) transit to research grounds
􀀀 Use of static fishing gear
􀀀 Conventional surface, mid-water and bottom trawling
􀀀 Plankton sampling and bottom dredging
􀀀 Water sampling at depths up to 200m
􀀀 Sea floor coring and rock dredging
􀀀 Soft sediment sampling and sea floor photography
􀀀 Undergraduate / postgraduate teaching facility
􀀀 Platform for a wide variety of research programmes
􀀀 Charter for government and commercial organisations
􀀀 Marine wildlife observation and acoustic monitoring
􀀀 Environment (wind/wave/current) monitoring
􀀀 Underwater acoustic investigations
􀀀 Cavitation observations
􀀀 Performance monitoring (of torque, thrust, fuel consumption, SOG, STW etc.)
􀀀 Anti-fouling performance assessment
􀀀 Bio-fouling sampling
􀀀 Biofuels research
􀀀 Full scale experimentation
􀀀 Vocational training
􀀀 Water quality assessment
􀀀 Wind farm / wet renewable farm support
􀀀 Underwater ROV/AUV/diving support