Namesake Falkor (luckdragon) Length 83 m Depth 6.67 m Beam 13 m Builder Lübeck | Yard number 760 Launched 22 December 1980 Draft 4.8 m Endurance 1.3 months | |
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Name MV FalkorSeefalke (Sea Hawk) (until July 2009) Port of registry George Town, Cayman IslandsHamburg (until 2009) Cost $94 million (refit/conversion) | ||
An introduction to soi and rv falkor
RV Falkor is an oceanographic research vessel, the flagship vessel of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
Contents
Tassie whalers on the rv falkor
History
RV Falkor was originally built as Seefalke in 1981 in Lübeck, Germany as a fishery protection vessel. During an extensive refit at Peters Schiffbau shipyard in Wewelsfleth, Germany, from 2009 to early 2012, she was converted to an oceanographic research vessel. The conversion was funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt with the intent of allowing researchers to use it free of charge, provided they make their findings free to the public within two months of the research.
In 2012, crew from the Falkor discovered the wreck of Terra Nova whilst mapping the sea bed off Greenland.
In August 2013, Canadian scientists investigated the dynamics of hypoxia in the "dead zone" of the Pacific Ocean off Vancouver Island.
Facilities
Falkor has a 20,000 lb SWL A-frame over the transom, a 7,000 lb SWL f-Frame and 2 articulating cranes providing at least 2 ton weight lifting over the whole of the aft working deck. The cable of the CTD/Hydro winch can be routed to any of these.
On the main deck, a dry lab includes a 28 m2 ROV / Echosounder Control Room, a 26 m2 Lab / Office Space and 17 m2 Data Lab. The wet laboratory is 32 m2.
Falkor has dynamic positioning and can deploy light ROVs. There are shallow- and deep-water multibeam echosounders for acoustic research. The 6.3m aluminium hull, 350 hp jet-drive boat has a bow ramp.