R/V Thomas G. Thompson Mid-Life Extension

Vigor performed an electrical refit and mid-life extension for the 274-foot research vessel operated by the University of Washington’s School of Oceanography. The project was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation and the UW. Over the course eighteen months, Vigor performed repairs and upgrades that will extend the vessels life for a quarter century including:

• New propulsion plant with four diesel generators, new switchboards, new propulsion drives, new controls and a new alarm and monitoring system
• New navigation and control systems on the ship’s bridge
• Adding a catwalk outside the bridge to facilitate maintenance
• More than 6 miles of new cabling and thousands of feet of new piping
• New air conditioning and refrigeration systems, higher-capacity desalination machine and a quieter exhaust system
• Upgrading and installing a new bottom-mapping sonar
• New fiber-optic network for faster data transmission
• New instrument well to deploy instruments from the ship and more electrical power for supporting remotely operated vehicles
• A complete update of the science team’s computer lab and new fume hoods in the lab spaces