‘White Ribbon’ will enable British Geological Survey to map infamous datagap around our

Nov 14th, 2009

Featured In Maritime Journal October 2009

Cheetah Marine, has been working closely with the British Geological Survey (BGS) to provide the BGS with a specialised road towable hydrographic survey catamaran. The 7.9m Cheetah which is named ‘White Ribbon’ refers to the data gap within the coastal zone where traditionally data collection has been difficult. Developing a series of onshore to offshore contiguous maps is essential in understanding the progress of sea level rise.

‘White Ribbon’ will predominantly be employed to survey this area with the aim to monitor and increase understanding between the land and ocean systems.

The BGS criteria required a stable, road towable system capable of being towed around the country and launched and recovered from a variety of coastal and inland sites. The 7.9m Cheetah Catamaran was seen as a proven product for small workboats and in particular Cheetah Marine’s flexible approach to designing systems for the hydrographic survey sector. This has been demonstrated on a number of Cheetah Catamarans with customers such as the Port of London Authority (PLA), Saudi Ports Authority and numerous Universities and survey companies within Europe.

Cheetah Marine’s unique hydropod installation featuring a between hull moonpool has been accommodated on the aft deck. The original system first installed on the SPA’s ‘Surveyor I’ has been developed to accommodate a larger multiple transducer system. Twin Kongsberg EM3002 Multibeam Echousounders are positioned at 45 degree angles pointing forward and aft on a stainless steel rotating disc system. When lowered through the moonpool, the bearing is rotated facing the transducers port and starboard. This rotating system enables larger transducers which are too large to fit between the hulls to be deployed on a smaller catamaran. The whole system is suspended from an overhead stainless steel gantry, designed and manufactured at Cheetahs new workshops at Ventnor Haven on the Isle of Wight.

The dual head system operates at a maximum of 200 degrees enabling surveying to the water surface along shorelines and estuaries as well as vertical manmade structures. The Cheetah Catamaran has proved an ideal survey platform with other leading MBES systems, delivering clearer, denser images at survey speeds exceeding 10 knots – a huge economic advantage when compared to conventional operations.

With a top speed of 25 knots ‘White Ribbon’ can quickly access transit sites with the hydropod lifted above the deck. The simple lowering procedure combined with extreme accuracy removing the requirement for calibration enables surveying to be commenced in a time efficient manner.

On the aft deck two swinging foldaway davits have been installed to enable deployment of other survey units including side scan sonar, sub bottom profiler and magnetometer with the option of adapting for AUV deployment and retrieval at a later date.

For more information on ‘White Ribbon’ or to request a brochure, contact Cheetah Marine on 01983 852398.