It feels as though the past two days have been one long meeting, but we also squeezed in an inspection tour at AAM with Dave Weed, Bauke Houtman of NSF, Ryan of Radar Marine in Bellingham, and of course the whole crew of AAM.

Clockwise from left: Richard Furbush, Dave Weed, Mark Gleason, Pat Manley, Bauke Houtman, and Ryan of Radar Marine.

We discussed the wheelhouse design, integrating the multibeam and ADCP into the construction plan, the construction schedule itself, sea trials, the console for the hydraulics systems and winches, technology and wiring for the smart classroom, integrating the navionics systems with the classroom, arranging the arrival of other Middlebury College equipment, running cables from external equipment into the lab, the wire-out systems and alarms for the instrumented sheave, and the list goes on.

The MRI grant has been announced on the College website.

Tom, Richard, and I are off to Bellingham to meet our NSF Program Officer for a major meeting at AAM. Never a dull moment!

After many phone calls and emails back and forth, we’ve straightened out the confusion about Coast Guard inspection. The USCG has agreed to inspect the vessel to certify that it meets T-boat safety standards. The inspection will be performed by the Seattle Branch. The Officer in Charge of Marine Inspection there will review the drawings first, select some for further review, and then pass them on to the Marine Safety Center in Washington, DC.

To say we are relieved is an understatement. Without this inspection, the College would not have been able to use its new research vessel!

The updated design and construction specifications book has been completed and approved by the College. I’ve sent a spreadsheet to our contact at NSF, which defines all the change orders and associated costs and explains why they are important, with a request to tap our grant’s contingency funds to cover these changes. (NSF required contingency set-aside, a standard part of construction planning, as a condition of our award; we’re allowed to use it only once they approve our request.)

We received word today that the Coast Guard will not inspect the new research vessel. Clearly there’s some misunderstanding somewhere! Without USCG inspection, the vessel can’t be used the way we need to use it. We’ll appeal this decision. Stay tuned…