March 1-2, 2005, 8:30 am
Dakota Creek Industries
820 Fourth Street
Anacortes, WA 98221
Executive Summary:
The
Fleet Improvement Committee (FIC) met on March 1 and 2, 2005 at the Dakota
Creek Industries (DCI) in Anacortes, WA.
A major focus of the meeting was on the FIC and FOFC long-range Fleet
plans and Academic Fleet Renewal activities.
A brief summary of these items and other issues addressed by FIC are
provided in this Executive Summary:
Long-Range Fleet Renewal Plans – The FOFC Federal fleet renewal plan will be a coordinated agency plan spanning the years 2005 to 2025. It expands on the FOFC December 2001 plan and agencies represented include the Navy, USGS, EPA, USCG, NOAA, NASA, NSF, and MMS. The working group is developing an initial draft for completion by 31 March. They hope to have the draft available for NORLC approval by 31 July 2005. The report release is planned for 30 September 2005. The initial assumptions for the FOFC update are that ocean research and operations will continue to be a national priority in support of agency missions and special programs (Tsunami Warning System, OOI). Vessels will be available for a minimum 30-year service life. The plan only considers vessels greater than 40 meters. There are 43 Federal oceanographic ships in the plan. These include general-purpose ships, survey vessels, and USCG icebreakers.
The
FIC spent considerable time reviewing their Fleet Improvement Plan
outline. Charts showing Fleet utilization
trends and projections were reviewed and discussed.
Fleet
Renewal:
· Regional Class Acquisition Process –NSF continues to move forward with plans for acquisition of three Regional ships and if all proceeds on track construction would begin in FY07 with the lead ship. Ship operator selection could be done in parallel with Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Design/Build teams, but this is still under consideration. During Phase I, two selected teams would develop competing designs. The Performance Specifications will be an attachment to the RFP and are extremely important, as they are the basis for the designs. The community should be made aware that the performance specification review is the last opportunity that they will have to provide direct input into the project.
·
Ocean Class Acquisition Process
- A UNOLS letter has been drafted and will be delivered to RADM Cohen on 21
March that provides the recommendation that the Ocean Class be a monohull
design. The Navy FY06 budget request
includes $4M for Ocean Class design. If
the budget were approved, ONR would like to select the operator, and issue the
RFP for design/build teams early in the fiscal year.
· Global Class SMR Update and Mid-Life Refit Planning - The Global Class Steering Committee chaired by Bruce Howe (UW) are working to draft general-purpose Global Vessel SMRs. They will review past SMRs and other documentation and solicit input from the larger science and operator community throughout process. As a follow-on activity heavy lift considerations, and seismic capabilities will be addressed.
·
Ship Design, Construction, and Conversion –
Updates were provided on the status of the Marcus
Langseth conversion and the Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV)
design. Matt Hawkins guided the FIC on
a tour of the Cape Henlopen
Replacement Vessel under construction at DCI.
Other FIC Activities:
· ADA White Paper - Terry Whitledge has drafted a white paper that provides Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines for research vessels. Terry has requested that FIC review the draft and provide him with any comments.
· Load Handling System Workshop – Matt Hawkins provided a summary of the preliminary findings of the Load Handling System Workshop report. The goal of the workshop was to develop a conceptual design for the “next-generation” over-the-side load handling system for the UNOLS Fleet.
· Kilo Moana discussion – The FIC will prepare a more focused set of debrief questions for Kilo Moana users. Select cruises will be chosen for debrief.
Actions:
|
Task Description |
Action |
|
Regional Class Actions: |
|
|
·
Review
Regional Performance Specifications 1. Marc Willis – send message to RVTEC 2. Al Suchy – send message to FIC 3. Wilf Gardner – send message to RCAC 4. Dave Hebert and Peter Wiebe draft letter by 3/7 5. Request community Comment by 21 March 6.
Submit to NSF by mid April |
Complete – Comments
provided to NSF (2 iterations) |
|
·
UNOLS Regional
Class Rep – Action revised at Council Meeting on March 29-39. Provide recommendations for 2-person
Source Select Team and a Technical Advisory Team (6-8 people) |
Complete - Dave,
Wilf, B. Martin, T. Askew, Office |
|
· Stay engaged in acquisition process § Provide feedback to NSF §
Insure community input |
FIC, RCAC |
|
KILO MOANA Actions: |
|
|
·
Continue Debrief Interviews with more focused set of
questions. May interview assignments. |
Complete -Terry W.
to revise Interview questions. |
|
·
Compile Debriefs for posting on the
UNOLS website |
Office -Ongoing |
|
·
Draft Summary document |
Annette & Dave |
|
FOFC Fleet Plan Update - ·
Provide the Working Group information when requested. |
Complete -FIC |
|
Amend SMRs: ·
Amend Regional and Ocean Class SMR to include ADA
requirements (Terry’s white paper) ·
Carefully review the “Lessons Learned” and PCA
comments. Incorporate as appropriate
into the SMR documents |
RC and OC Steering
Committees - ongoing |
|
Design and Constructions Efforts - Stay engaged in ongoing design
and construction efforts (ARRV, EWING replacement, CHRV, etc.) |
FIC – Ongoing |
|
Ocean Class Planning – Provided input as requested |
FIC and OCSC –
ongoing |
|
Global Class: Update SMRs |
Global Class
Steering Committee – ongoing |
|
ADA Guidelines draft White Paper – Terry has drafted an ADA White Paper for FIC
comment. FIC should provide any
comments to Terry |
FIC |
|
Update Fleet Improvement Plan: Annette will revise outline and recirculate it to committee. · First draft – May 2005 · Final draft – 30 September 2005 |
FIC – ongoing |
|
Ocean Observatories – Stay in contact with ORION Office. |
Dave Hebert –
ongoing |
Appendices:
I. Agenda
II. Attendees
III. UNOLS/FIC
Chair Meeting Slides
IV. NOAA
Report
V. Load
Handling System Workshop - Report
VI. FOFC
Activity - Federal Oceanographic Fleet Renewal Plan
VII. Fleet
Improvement Plan - Fleet Statistics
Meeting Minutes:
Day
1: Tuesday, March 1, 2005
The
Fleet Improvement Committee (FIC) met on March 1 and 2, 2005 at the Dakota
Creek Industries (DCI) in Anacortes, WA.
Dave Hebert, FIC Chair, called the meeting to order at 0830 and provided
an opportunity for introductions. The
meeting agenda was followed in the order as recorded in these minutes. The meeting agenda is included as Appendix
I and the meeting participants are listed in Appendix II. Dave thanked Matt
Hawkins for hosting the meeting and inviting the FIC to tour the Cape Henlopen Replacement vessel under
construction at DCI.
A
motion was made and approved to accept the minutes of the October
2004 FIC Meeting.
Dave reviewed the status of the FIC Action/Task List from the October meeting included in Appendix III. There was a brief discussion on the action to get feedback from the Captains of Western Flyer and Kilo Moana. Mike Prince reported that he has been in touch with Captain Ian Young of the Western Flyer. Dan Rolland has also contacted Capt. Gary Drewry. There are community concerns and some misconceptions regarding the capabilities of Kilo Moana. Accurate, factual information should be provided to the community. Debriefs in general have been favorable, but there are a few areas of concern.
Dave reported that he plans to stay in touch with the ORION office regarding the Ocean Observatories Initiative. He is keeping in touch with the new acting director, Rick Jahnke. Bob Detrick is the chair of the ORION executive steering committee.
Agency Reports:
National Science Foundation (NSF) - Dolly Dieter provided the report for NSF. NSF Ocean Sciences is facing budget
reductions. There was about a 5% cut
for OCE in fiscal year (FY) 2005 and FY06 will likely see another 5% cut. The budget shortfalls will have a big impact
on ship operations. Larry Clark (NSF)
sent a letter in February to Peter Wiebe asking for UNOLS suggestions on how to
address the budget shortfalls. It will
be a very difficult time.
Funds for construction of the Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV)
will not be requested until FY07 at the earliest. The ARRV is included in NSF’s Major Research Equipment account.
Mike Prince commented that the letter from Larry Clark was just
recently received and it has been distributed to the UNOLS Council for
review. Peter Wiebe is drafting a
message to forwarded Larry’s letter to the rest of the UNOLS community.
Mike asked if the NOAA DART buoy needs would be addressed in the
updated FOFC Fleet renewal plan. Mike
stressed that unless NOAA DART facility needs are identified, there is the risk
that UNOLS ships will be taken off line to meet budget shortfalls and the
capability to meet potential new demand for programs like DART would be
lost.
Terry Whitledge asked about the status of transferring USCG ice
breaker support to NSF. Dolly replied
that there have been no decisions regarding this issue.
Office of Naval Research (ONR) –
John Freitag provided the report for ONR.
He began by remarking that budget reductions are a long term
problem. The ONR Research Facilities
program had about a $600K reduction this year and expects more next year. A large, multi-ship operation is planned in
2006 along the east coast. The Research
Facilities base budget is about $10M annually with additional funds from NRL,
CNMOC, etc.
ONR is moving on April 10, 2005 to the building adjacent to its
current building. They are also getting
a new accounting system.
Funding in the amount of $4M for Ocean Class acquisition is
included in the FY06 budget request.
This would support a one-year design effort. The request for next year, FY07 includes $25M for
construction. ONR is working to have a
Request for Proposals (RFP) for design/build teams ready for release at the
start of FY06. Ocean Class ship
operators cannot be selected until the funds become available. The $4M, if authorized, will come out of the
ONR budget; it is not a plus up. The
request at this time is just for one vessel.
If the request is authorized, the shipyard would be incrementally
funded.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – A NOAA representative could not attend the meeting, but sent a
written report in advance. The report
is included as Appendix IV. Mike
Prince read the NOAA report. The
written report addresses the FOFC Fleet plan, construction of the NOAA
Fisheries Survey Vessels (FSVs), and the Ocean Exploration vessel conversion.
Mike also reported that NOAA held a buoy summit at the end of
February 2005 (the day before the FIC).
Peter Wiebe attended the meeting as a representative for UNOLS. Mike and Rose Dufour, Ship Scheduling
Committee co-Chair, participated by phone.
The
summit was held to discuss the new initiatives for tsunami response and warning
system and the DART moorings. There is
an emergency funding supplement for the system in Congress, but it has not
passed yet. NOAA plans call for 39 moorings to cover the Pacific, Atlantic and
Caribbean by mid 2007. There is a
supplemental budget for FY05/06 to support the buoys in Congress, but will not
be funded until May or June. NOAA can't move forward until the funding is
approved. There are currently six
operational buoy sites in the Pacific and the proposal is to add 33 more. There is no prioritization for the mooring
deployments and there is no budget.
They would like to be able to take advantage of ships working in the
area where the moorings are to be located.
They are also hoping for international support. The NOAA scientists are still finalizing the
mooring positions. They will try to make commitments for UNOLS ship time. NOAA doesn’t have enough ships in their
fleet to support this work. The global
ships have the capabilities to support the work. UNOLS has requested that NOAA provide their DART requirements by
the July Ship Scheduling meeting. DART
support will be an important element of the updated FOFC plan. NOAA has indicated that they plan to develop
a matrix of overall ship time requirements.
Fleet Renewal
Activities:
NSF
Facility Renewal Activities - Dolly Dieter (NSF) provided a brief
background and status of the various renewal efforts underway and planned at
NSF. Four years ago, when there were
plans to double the NSF budget, NSF began developing plans for renewal. This included a replacement human occupied
vehicle (HOV), acquisition of a modern seismic vessel, and construction of
three Regional Vessels. The HOV
replacement effort has been funded in a phased approach. Originally it was to be a four-year program,
but it is more likely that it will span five plus years. Acquisition of a modern seismic vessel has
moved forward with the purchase and conversion of R/V Marcus Langseth. NSF currently
plans to support the acquisition over five years. They hope to have funds for construction of the ARRV in the FY07
budget.
Regional
Class Acquisition Process – Dolly Dieter reported that NSF is
proceeding with plans for the acquisition of three Regional ships. If all goes as planned construction would
begin in FY07 with the lead ship, and an additional ship every two years. This is predicated on level budgets at a
minimum. Ship operator selection would
possibly be done in parallel with the RFP process. Pete Kilroy indicated that they would want the operator selected
by the start of Phase II. During Phase
I the two selected teams would develop competing designs. The initial call for operators may be for
one or more operators, but they are still addressing this area.
Pete Kilroy provided additional details. NAVSEA hopes for release of the design/build team RFP in July 2005. The Performance Specifications will be an attachment to the RFP. The performance specifications are extremely important, as they are the basis for the designs. They would like to have UNOLS feedback on the draft specifications as soon as possible, but it should be thorough. A reasonable target date for a consolidated UNOLS response is 1 April. Pete indicated that input does not have to be submitted as one final response. It can be provided incrementally but should not include conflicting remarks. It is useful for NAVSEA to get any questions sooner, than later. Providing feedback using the spreadsheet as a tool would be useful. NSF would probably like to have the draft specs posted for community input. Mike Prince reported that the draft specifications have been circulated to the Council, FIC, Regional Class Advisory Committee (RCAC) and Marine Superintendents. Pete indicated that finalizing the performance specifications would likely be an iterative process.
Mike Prince asked Marc Willis to send the specifications to RVTEC for comment. He also asked Al Suchy to encourage the Marine Superintendents, ship captains, and chief engineers to provide input. Peter Wiebe can remind the Council and Dave will encourage feedback from FIC. Wilf will be asked to contact the RCAC. Mike asked that they submit comments as soon as they can, but no later than 21 March. Peter and Dave will draft a message requesting input. They will alert the community that this is the last opportunity that they will have to provide direct input into the project. Pete Kilroy indicated that by the early May timeframe they should have a final draft of the specifications for review. If needed, a group could meet for the final review.
NSF has not made vessel size a specification, but they will give a size range that should be adhered to. For guidance to the design/build teams, a crew size of 14 will likely be indicated.
Discussion on UNOLS input to the acquisition process followed. NSF is considering appointment of two UNOLS/community advisors; a scientist and an operator. These two individuals would advise on the selection of the two design/build teams for Phase I and the final selection of the desired design. These two people will not be able to discuss the project with the community and they must be available for meetings. It is a big commitment and there could be big issues for not maintaining confidentiality. NSF would ask UNOLS for suggestions regarding advisors. The advisors would need to be available for two to three weeks of dedicated time in VA for proposal reviews. After selection of the teams, the time commitment would be less and perhaps there may be a process where physical meetings are not required. During the final source selection of the shipyard a longer dedicated, closed door meeting would be held. This process could take a month. A comment was made that funding to support the time of the advisors would be required.
It is possible that operator selector might come at the end of the Phase I. At that time the ship design would be will be defined. During Phase II there is less need for confidentiality since the design is known and the competition Phase has past. The build/construct teams building the ship can hire consultants that include university representatives. There are many conflict issues that need to be resolved. A question was asked if there would there be a conflict if industry team includes representation from an operator that is bidding on the operations.
Matt Hawkins cautioned that it is important when selecting a yard to make arrangements to allow for a certain level of change to details. When University of Delaware was selecting a shipyard, they asked for a record of past change order history.
Tour of Cape Henlopen Replacement Vessel Construction, Dakota Creek
Shipyard - Matt Hawkins guided the FIC on a tour of the Cape Henlopen Replacement Vessel under
construction at DCI.
Lunch
Ocean Class Acquisition Process - Over
the course of the winter months, FIC and the Ocean Class Steering Committee
evaluated various hull variants as potential Ocean Class designs. They posted
the results of their evaluation on the UNOLS website for community review and
comment. In general, the community
agreed and reinforced the findings. A
UNOLS letter has been drafted that provides their recommendation that the Ocean
Class be a monohull design. Peter
Wiebe will present the letter to RADM Cohen on March 21st. The letter gives the recommendation and
reviews the process used for the evaluation.
The appendices include about 140 pages of everything on the project. It is available at <http://www.unols.org/_projects/fic_ocean/xcraft/xcraft_documents.html>.
John
Freitag continued with a report on the Ocean Class acquisition process
status. One difference between the NSF
process and the ONR process for acquisition is that ONR favors selecting the
Operator early in the process so that they can participate in the design
phase. Initially, they would probably
only select the first ship’s operator.
The timeline depends on when funding is approved. ONR would like to be able to move forward as
soon as the funding becomes reality.
The solicitation for ship operator will not be restricted by area. If the budget were approved, ONR would like
to select the operator, and issue the RFP design/build teams early in the
fiscal year.
Load Handling System Workshop – Matt Hawkins provided a summary of the preliminary findings of the Load Handling System Workshop report. The presentation is included as Appendix V. The goal of the workshop was to develop a conceptual design for the “next-generation” over-the-side load handling system for the UNOLS Fleet. Committee
U.
Hawaii worked with Matt on handling system recommendations for Kilo Moana. A winch doesn’t exist that could reach the water for use on Kilo Moana.
The
workshop report and findings will be provided to NSF and ONR. Once accepted, the handling system
guidelines could be incorporated into the UNOLS SMRs.
Pete Kilroy commented that to pass Subchapter U, the handling system would need to be approved by the Marine Safety Center. It is good to get this done earlier than later.
Ship Design and
Construction Efforts:
Marcus Langseth Conversion Status - Jim Cochran of
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory reported on the status of the Marcus Langseth conversion effort. They will convert the ship to bring it from
an eight streamer platform to a four streamer ship. They are also converting it to have a more general-purpose
research capability.
The Ewing has completed its final cruise and is transiting to Rhode Island
for cross-decking. There appears to
be a market for single-streamer seismic vessels and LDEO has had some offers
on the sale of Ewing.
The Marcus Langseth reflagging effort is going slowly. The USCG doesn’t handle many of these cases
and it is taking longer than expected.
LDEO has found a vendor
that can build an A-frame for the ship and stay within budget. The A-Frame is a bit smaller than originally
desired, 15-ft wide.
LDEO has invited a group
from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to advise on the
general-purpose capabilities that the ship should be capable of. This is useful since LDEO’s expertise is
with seismic support. WHOI will advise
on issues such as:
·
Over-the-side
operation requirements
·
Winch
control
·
Adequacy
of A-frame for moorings deployments/recoveries
·
Communication
to the sea floor.
·
Coring
– how can longer core lengths be accommodated
Jim reported that a
meeting is planned for March 8th to review shipyard plans. Dolly replied that NSF must be involved and
that they should have any specifications well in advance.
Jim indicated that
modeling of the arrays is ongoing. LDEO
is working to stay on the timeline.
Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV) – Terry Whitledge
reported that the ARRV contract design is complete. They have requested a one-year no-cost extension. All drawings are on the ARRV website at
<http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/arrv/>.
Major out-standing items on the project
include:
-
Propulsion
and electronics
-
Over-the-side
handling