RV Belgica Equipment

General characteristics
Overall length	50.90 m
Overall width	10.00 m
Draft min./max.	4.20 m / 4.55 m
Water displacement	1132 t
Year of construction	1984
Home port	Zeebrugge, Belgium
Autonomy / distance	5000 miles at 12 knots
Autonomy / time	20 days
Working area	N36° - N65°, W010° - E012°
Call sign	ORGQ
IMO number	8222563
MMSI number (AIS)	205.218.000

Residential accommodation
Crew	15 people
Scientific staff	12 people; 16 people when accommodation container is used
Two person cabins	13
One person cabin	1
Accommodation container	4 persons
Air conditioning	all rooms, all laboratories and the pilothouse
Noise in the rooms	maximum 60 dBA

Propulsion
Main diesel engine	ABC DZ, 6 cylinder, 1154 kW
Electrical drive	82 kW electric motor for silent operation
Maximum speed	12.5 knots
Nominal speed	10 knots (850 rpm)
Speed during fishing activities	4 knots

Electrical system
Two main generators	Caterpilar diesel engine 275 kW; Van kaick alternator 325 kVA, 440V, 60 Hz
Stabilised electrical power	Aros Sentry RPS UPS system, 220 V, 50 Hz, 20 kVA

Hydraulic unit
Hydraulic system I	two main pumps, 500 l/min, 230 bar, two auxiliary pumps, 220 l/min, 230 bar, powers fishing winches, bow and stern propellers, net drum winch
Hydraulic system II	two pumps, 133 l/min, 230 bar, powers rear gantry, side gantry and davit, oceanographic winches
Effer crane	powered by two pumps, 42 l/min, 60 bar

Navigation equipment
Positioning system	Septentrio AsteRxeH RTK receiver with heading option, Furuno GP-150 EGNOS DGPS receiver
Radar	DECCA Bridgemaster , model E250, Furuno FAR-2117
Trackplotter	Transas Navi-Sailor 3000 ECDIS
Ship’s heading	Anschütz STD 20 gyro compass
Ship’s speed	Consilium SAL 860T Doppler log
AIS	Furuno FA-100

Telecommunications
GMDSS system	JRC model JHS32A
Inmarsat – Fleet 77	Furuno Felcom with 128 kbps
VSAT	Intellian V110 stabilised antenna with iDirect modem

Deck infrastructures and winches
Hydraulic crane	Effer Marine Knuckle type 44.000-3SL/1M
Fishing winches	2 Brusselle winches, max. load 8 tonnes
Rear gantry	5.90 m useful height, 5.00 m width on deck
Net drum winch	Brusselle winch, capacity 7 m³ / 5 tonnes
Revolving gantry	capacity 1 tonne, 3.0 m useful height, 1.3 m width on deck
Davit	capacity 0.5 tonne, max. height 1.8 m
Oceanographic winches	single drum: 1000 m of 5 mm RVS cable, double drum: 1700 m of 6.4 mm coaxial cable

Laboratories, activity zones and workstations
Rear working deck	140 m²
Side working deck	20 m²
Wet lab	20 m²
Dry lab space	microbiology (12 m²), chemical (10 m²) and biology (12 m²) lab
Fish lab	20 m² with direct access to the rear deck
Computer room	12 m²
Pilot house	two zones are reserved for scientific work (17 m²)
Cold store	to – 25°C (8 m²), to 0°C (6 m²)
Storage	70 m² at the intermediate deck
Containers	two 20 feet containers can be installed on the upper deck (level 1)

Data acquisition and processing system
Data acquisition	200 parameters at 5 Hz, real-time data quality control, HP rx2660 workstation, 64-port RS232 multiplexer
Data storage	Informix SQL database
Data presentation	real-time data and offline data presentation on Windows computer, near real-time data presentation on website

Scientific equipment on board
Specific equipment	Millipore RiOS 8 and Millipore Milli-Q ultra pure water, Memmert low temperature incubator (2x), Alfa Laval MMB 304 S continuous centrifuge, Frierichs meteo station (2x)
CTD equipment	Sea-Bird SBE19 CTD (2x), Sea-Bird SBE9plus CTD (2x), Sea-Bird SBE21 thermosalinograph (2x)
Water sampling equipment	Sea-Bird model 32 carousel for 12 10 liter Niskin bottles (2x), Various Niskin and Go-Flo water sampling bottles
Sediment sampling	boxcorer NIOZ model, Van Veen grab, Reineck corer, Bowers & Connelly multicorer
Sampling biotope	Benthic sledge, High speed encased Gulfstream Plankton sampler, 3 m trawl with shrimp net
Fishing gear	Various trawls with dedicated nets (property of ILVO)
Depth measuring equipment	Kongsberg EM3002D shallow water multibeam echosounder system, , Kongsberg EA400 with 33, 38 and 210 kHz transducer. Auxiliary sensors: Seatex MRU5 motion sensor, Valeport miniSVS sound velocity sensor, Applied Microsystems SVplus sound velocity profiler.
Seawater current	Hull mounted Teledyne RDI ADCP model Workhorse Mariner 300 kHzn Teledyne RDI ADCP model, Workhorse sentinel 1200 kHz for deployment on tripod or TRBM (trawl resistant Bottom Mount), Valeport model 106 velocimeter
AUMS	Parameters measured by the Autonomous Underway Measurement System: Turbidity, oxygen, pH, chlorophyll, blue algae, CDOM, salinity, pCO2, fluorescence, Par, hyperspectral irradiance, NO3, NH3, PO4, SiO2 and NO2
Tripods	Up to three tripods equipped with measuring instruments can be deployed from the R/V Belgica. The available instruments are: SonTek Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter ADVOcean 5 MHz, SonTek ADP 3 MHz acoustic Doppler profiler, Sea-Bird SBE37 CT system, Campbell Scientific OBS-3+ turbidity sensor, Nortek Aquadopp current profiler, Sequoia Scientific LISST-100X (Laser In-Situ Scattering and Transmissometer), Aquascat 1000 ABS (Acoustic Backscatter System)