R/V Falkor is a 82.9 m (272 ft) LOA ship originally built in 1981 in Lübeck, Germany as a fishery protection vessel.

The ship went through an extensive refit from 2009 to early 2012, converting the ship to an oceanographic research vessel. Cruising range and endurance are estimated at 8,000 nautical miles and 28 days of steaming (fuel-limited) at a cruising speed of 12 knots.  

R/V Falkor general arrangement is available for review in PDF format - 3.2MB. 

General Specifications:

Classification Society and Flag State:  
Germanischer Lloyd and Cayman Islands

Crew Compliment: 
19 ship’s crew plus 2 marine technicians

Science Berthing Accommodations: 
18 (1 single, 6 double, 2 triple)

Propulsion: 
(2) MWN Diesel Engines each @ 3,944 hp / 2,941 kW (@ 750 rpm), driving four highly skewed controllable pitch propellers

Bow Thruster: 
(1) Tunnel Thruster, 536 hp / 400kW

Dynamic Positioning: 
EMRI Joystick / DP system with follow ROV mode for launch, deploy and following for distances up to 150 meters at 2 knots

Rudders: 
(2) Becker Marine System flap rudders with linked operation (do not move independently of one anther) and operated at maximum +/- 45 degrees

Generators: 
(2) shaft generators at 650KVA / 500kW, 
(1) diesel generator at 650KVA / 500kW / 50Hz feeds an Atlas 100kVA converter to provide 480VAC 60Hz an Atlas 25kVA converter to provide clean power

R/V Falkor supports the following operations:

• Over-the-Side Deployments
  • Deployments over the transom with a 20,000 lb SWL A-Frame using the embedded single drum MacArtney MASH CTD Oceanographic Winch (Type 10000/8,2-31-RA)* or add-on mission-specific winches
    • MacArtney MASH CTD Oceanographic Winch has a 31kN max pull at the top layer and 53kN max pull at the bottom layer.
  • Deployments over the side with a 7,000 lb SWL J-Frame
  • Two articulating cranes provide at least 2 ton weight lifting coverage across all aft working decks (model HIAB Sea Crane 301-4)

• CTD/Hydro Winch Operations
  • 10,000 m of 0.322” EM coax wire or 9,000 m 3/8” 3×19 mechanical trawl wire
  • A flag sheave that allows routing the cable to either J-Frame, A-Frame, or Articulating Crane

• Wet laboratory work in a 32 square meter Wet Lab on the Main Deck equipped with:
  • -80 C, -20 C, +4 C sample preservation equipment
  • Ducted fume hood
  • US electrical power outlets (all clean power, up to 100 kVA total)
    • 120 VAC 60 Hz
    • 208 VAC 60 Hz
    • 208 VAC 60 Hz
  • European electrical outlets (unregulated plus up to 25 kVA clean power)
    • 240 VAC 50 Hz
    • 400 VAC 50 Hz
  • Hot and cold fresh water at sinks
  • Uncontaminated and incubator sea water supply
  • De-ionized water can be made available with an add-on de-ionizer (mission-specific)
  • Compressed air outlets
  • Chilled sea water supply (planned)
  • Remote Scientific Computer System (SCS) workstations (planned)

• Dry laboratory work in the Dry Lab area on the Main Deck equipped with:
  • 28 square meter ROV / Echosounder Control Room
  • 26 square meter Lab / Office Space
  • 17 square meter Data Lab on the Main Deck
  • The combined Dry Lab area is equipped with:
    • +4 C sample preservation freezer
    • US electrical power outlets (all clean power, up to 100 kVA total)
    • European electrical outlets (unregulated plus up to 25 kVA clean power)
    • Compressed air outlets
    • Remote SCS workstations (planned)

• Aft Working Deck operations requiring:
  • Up to 500 kW of unregulated electrical power from a dedicated 3-phase, 50 Hz, 395 VAC generator
  • Arbitrary additional equipment mounted to the Aft Deck and Staging Bay deck surfaces using a 2 foot x 2 foot bolt pattern
  • US electrical power outlets (no greater than 100 kVA total)
  • European electrical outlets (unregulated plus up to 25 kVA clean power)
  • Hot and cold fresh water outlets
  • Incubator sea water outlets
  • Compressed air outlets
  • Remote Scientific Computer System (SCS) access via LAN

• Deployments of light ROVs (e.g. Phantom or similar) or other small instruments from the Starboard Launching Area on the Main Deck
  • 17.7 square meters
  • adjacent articulating knuckle boom crane (model HIAB 301-4) crane on the Upper Deck over the Starboard Launching Area

• Acoustic research using the following equipment:
  • Deep water multi-beam echo sounder –  Kongsberg EM 302 1×1 degree
  • Shallow water multi-beam echo sounder – Kongsberg EM 710 0.5×1
    • R/V Falkor Multibeam Echosounder System Review is available for review at the UNOLS Multibeam Advisory Committee website
  • Single beam echo sounder - Kongsberg EA 600, 12/38/120/200 kHz
  • Fishery research system - Simrad EK60 , 18/38/70/120/200/710 kHz
  • Simrad SH90 high definition omnidirectional fishery sonar, 114 kHz
  • Sub-bottom profiling system - Knudsen CHIRP 3260, 12kHz
  • Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler -Teledyne Ocean Surveyor, 75 kHz
  • Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler -Teledyne Workhorse Mariner, 300 kHz

• Subsea acoustic positioning system Ultra-Short BaseLine system (USBL)  – Sonardyne Ranger 2.  Transceiver unit fits on a deployable through-hull pole via a 340mm opening gate valve.

• Dynamic Positioning operations with +/- 5 meter precision with wind forces up to 25 knots and currents up to 1 knot

• Underway water sampling
  • Wet Lab equipped with general purpose and uncontaminated sea water outlets.
  • A thermosalinograph with a remote temperature probe (Seabird  SBE 38 and SBE 45)

• UAV or Helicopter operations
  • 12.6 meter diameter commercial rated helideck suitable for operation of Bell 407 and Eurocopter EC135 helicopter with a MTOW of up to 2,900 kg (6,200 lbs) and any smaller and lighter helicopters
    • helicopter refueling services are not available
    • off-helideck helicopter storage is not available
  • The helideck can support unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launch and recovery operations.

• Weather protected instrument Staging Bay (30 square meters) and workshop (8 square meters) adjacent to the main working deck

• Mammal and bird observation using weather protected upper deck areas

• Work boat operations
  • One 6.3 meter aluminum hull 350 HP jet-drive SAFE Boats workboat with bow ramp, supported by a dedicated heave compensating launch davit.
  • One articulated midship knuckle boom deck crane (HIAB 121-2) for launching and recovering add-on workboats supplied by the science party (e.g. Zodiac Mark V)

• Outreach and operations requiring continuous global Internet access, provided via C-Band VSAT.
  • Bandwidth is flexible and can be made sufficient to support HD video streaming.