The heavy lifting equipment can lift and move items up to 10 tonnes around the deck and over the stern, and pull over 30 tonnes when extracting sediment cores from the bottom of the ocean. The different attachment points on the deck mean that scientists can install their own specialised winches and other large equipment onboard, and safely secure items when not being used.
The facilities offered on the aft deck allow:
- Scientists studying trace metals in the ocean, such as iron, to have access to the clean water they need (free from trace metal contamination associated with the ship and instruments).
- Krill researchers to fill tanks housed in aquarium containers with seawater cooled to as low as −1.8°C, to keep collected krill in pristine condition.
- Geoscientists to process samples, store and power specialised equipment.
A-frame
The telescopic A-frame has 8 m deck clearance when fully extended.
A-frame lifting capacities:
- Static: 30 T Safe Working Load (SWL)
- Dynamic: 10 T SWL
- Luffing capacity: 10 T SWL
Integral winches of A-frame:
- 40 m x 18 mm steel wire rope; 6.4 T SWL hook/ 6.5 T SWL shackle
- 40 m x 18 mm steel wire rope; 6.4 T SWL hook/ 6.5 T SWL shackle
- 40 m x 24 mm steel wire rope; 12.8 T SWL hook/ 12 T SWL shackle/ 30 T SWL wire block
Winches
- Deep sea coring winch: 8,500 m x 25 mm synthetic jacketed rope; 20 T SWL
- Deep sea towing winch: 8,400 m x 17.35 mm Electro-Optical-Mechanical (EOM) cable; 15 T SWL
- General purpose winch: 2,000 m x 9 mm synthetic jacketed rope; 3.1 T SWL
- Net drum: Double/ split type with dividers for sweep lines; 2 x 15 T SWL
- Trawl winches (x 2): 8,800 m x 22 mm wire; 30 T SWL
- Tugger winches (x 2): 130 m x 12 mm synthetic rope; 17 T Max Breaking Load
- Towed body winch: 4,800 m x 13.6 mm EOM cable; 8 T SWL
Side outboard deployment system
The Side Outboard Deployment System (SODS) can be configured in conjunction with the general purpose, tugger, or towed body winch, and consists of towing booms (2.5 T SWL) off port and starboard aft quarters.
Trawling
The vessel can support 1, 2 and 3 wire trawl operations including surface, mid water, and demersal (benthic) trawling utilising the trawl gallows, twin net drum, tugger winches, trawl warps, deep sea towing and towed body winches and the A-frame.
Crane
The Science Deck is serviced by a 10 T SWL multi-purpose overhead crane.