The ice belt is the problem what with 100 tonnes overweight it brings. And it’s too low to be considered within safe operating margins even for first year ice. Also the weight distribution makes it not ideal for sustained patrols south of Stewart Island in winter and Auckland Island in the summer.
I’m of the view that maybe the whole Southern Ocean tasking should be abandoned by the Protector Vessels and the OPV’s Ice Belt removed losing the excess 100 tonnes of weight, and hopefully curing the vessel of its stability issues. There is more than enough patrol work for the OPV’s north of 47 degrees South around our EEZ as well as the South Pacific Dependencies, which have not seen regular RNZN patrols for over a decade. New Zealand, along with Australia and Brazil, is one of just three countries to be granted sovereign rights to its continental shelf by the United Nations. We now have rights over 5.45 million sq km of our continental shelf - an area three times the size of France.
Of course it would mean that at least a new vessel would be required.
The Australian Customs vessel Ocean Viking would have been the right vessel for the tasking needs in the Ross Sea or NZ’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) a government entity, which operates the 70m, ice strengthen (1-C) RV Tangaroa. Both also would have also been able to stow and deliver all those awkward and larger items down to Scott Base during the busy summer season on the ice for the Antarctica NZ programme that the US currently assists with when they have spare capacity. The Ocean Viking is putting on over 200 patrol days a year in the South Ocean which is quite an impressive workload. The RV Tangaroa has a respectable 60 day endurance and was bought new in 1991 for $27 million as a specialist research ship. Much of that cost though was due to the specialist scientific equipment required. I wonder what a good large 70 to 80m no frills commercial Trawler with 1-C ice strengthening would cost. Actually does the Navy have to pay and operate a Ross Sea ship? Could the Ministry of Fisheries, Antarctica NZ, Customs, DOC operate it and pay for it? I have also heard the argument lately that does the NZ Navy really have to do Oceanographic Surveying and pay for the replacement of the Resolution? These were good issues raised during the recent Defence Forum I attended. It’s not like the Navy has a mortgage on maritime activities.
I’m of the view that maybe the whole Southern Ocean tasking should be abandoned by the Protector Vessels and the OPV’s Ice Belt removed losing the excess 100 tonnes of weight, and hopefully curing the vessel of its stability issues. There is more than enough patrol work for the OPV’s north of 47 degrees South around our EEZ as well as the South Pacific Dependencies, which have not seen regular RNZN patrols for over a decade. New Zealand, along with Australia and Brazil, is one of just three countries to be granted sovereign rights to its continental shelf by the United Nations. We now have rights over 5.45 million sq km of our continental shelf - an area three times the size of France.
Of course it would mean that at least a new vessel would be required.
The Australian Customs vessel Ocean Viking would have been the right vessel for the tasking needs in the Ross Sea or NZ’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) a government entity, which operates the 70m, ice strengthen (1-C) RV Tangaroa. Both also would have also been able to stow and deliver all those awkward and larger items down to Scott Base during the busy summer season on the ice for the Antarctica NZ programme that the US currently assists with when they have spare capacity. The Ocean Viking is putting on over 200 patrol days a year in the South Ocean which is quite an impressive workload. The RV Tangaroa has a respectable 60 day endurance and was bought new in 1991 for $27 million as a specialist research ship. Much of that cost though was due to the specialist scientific equipment required. I wonder what a good large 70 to 80m no frills commercial Trawler with 1-C ice strengthening would cost. Actually does the Navy have to pay and operate a Ross Sea ship? Could the Ministry of Fisheries, Antarctica NZ, Customs, DOC operate it and pay for it? I have also heard the argument lately that does the NZ Navy really have to do Oceanographic Surveying and pay for the replacement of the Resolution? These were good issues raised during the recent Defence Forum I attended. It’s not like the Navy has a mortgage on maritime activities.
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