UNOLS Ship Scheduling Committee Report

September 27, 2002

The total number of ship days is up 9% for 2003 from 4939 to 5399. After July’s confused and up-in-the-air scheduling meeting, the September meeting was contained, orderly, and effective. The difficulties in July came about again from multi-ship cruises, time sensitive cruises, and the logistics of getting equipment and instrumentation (AUV’s, ROV’s, etc.) to the right ship at the right time. Time constraints and the need for two or three ship cruises locked in parts of schedules and reduced the flexibility and availability of those vessels. Shipping, mobilizing, and de-mobilizing the specialized assets also affected schedules because of the time involved. Nonetheless, through the hard work and cooperation of the PI’s, schedulers, and Program Managers, most of the problems with facilities, assets, places, ships, and times were resolved to almost everyone’s satisfaction. However, this resolution did include postponing some cruises to 2004 and having some cruises sail in less than ideal time slots or on smaller ships than originally requested.

The small regional vessels, as a class, should operate at near 100% capacity and total around 590 days. The Class IV vessels will sail at around 85% capacity. This includes CAPE HATTERAS finishing a mid-life refit and operating for a half-year and PELICAN being undergoing an overhaul in the first quarter of the year. These ships will operate for a total of about 1200 days. The Intermediate ships (Class III), will fill nearly 78% capacity. Some of these ships were affected by the multi-ship cruises, which kept some schedules light. These vessels’ total number of days is around 1250. Finally, the large ships will operate at nearly 98% capacity, totaling around 2350. Many of these will end up 2003 poised to undertake operations in 2004.