UC San Diego’s R/V Robert Gordon Sproul
has
faithfully served Scripps Institution
of Oceanography in their mission to understand and protect
the marine ecosystems along the California coast for over forty years. Now
that the Sproul is
nearing the end of its service life, Scripps has hired Glosten to provide the
preliminary, contract, and detail design for a new multidisciplinary research
vessel that will replace the aging ship.
The
coastal-class research vessel, presently known as the CCRV, will be equipped
with acoustic Doppler current profilers, seafloor mapping systems, midwater
fishery imaging systems, biological and geological sampling systems, and
support for airborne drone operations. Using these tools, students and
scientists will be able to study issues vital to the state of California in
state-of-the-art, on-board laboratories.
Scripps also envisioned a vessel
that would be capable of carbon-free operations and run on hydrogen power—the
latter of which is yet to be achieved with an R/V. Luckily, Glosten has a history of successfully applying our naval architecture
and marine engineering know-how to never-been-done-before projects with
extraordinary results.