The ocean is home to some very hostile environments: extreme temperatures (from relatively tropical at the surface to near freezing at extreme depths), immense subsea pressures, and corrosive elements at play throughout the water column. And that’s not to mention the destructive forces associated with tides, currents, waves, and other weather patterns that govern so much of the climatic volatility.

Okeanus Science & Technology, LLC (Okeanus), an international provider of specialized ocean equipment and marine engineering services, recently supported the outfitting of a brand-new All American Marine 78’ x 26.7’ research vessel with a custom deck handling equipment package. The RV North Wind, recently delivered to California State Polytechnic University (Cal Poly) Humboldt, is a state-of-the-art semi-displacement catamaran equipped with the latest oceanographic equipment and handling systems designed for near-coastal and offshore marine survey operations.

Okeanus Science & Technology, LLC (Okeanus), an international provider of specialized ocean equipment and marine engineering services, recently delivered a 20-Ton A-Frame to ThayerMahan, a leading defense and commercial maritime technology company, for their newly acquired vessel, TM Vigilant. The A-Frame is now permanently installed on the vessel, which has been engineered to support the launch and recovery of monitoring and surveillance assets for both environmental survey campaigns and defense-related missions.

Here we profile another Okeanus system designed to optimize deck space and offer offshore clients the maximum operational utility from their launch and recovery equipment.

Deck handling equipment designed for ocean exploration, in all its various guises, has been transformed in recent years thanks to technological innovation. The advances are, admittedly, often overshadowed by the progress of more celebrated ocean technologies, often the prized assets that A-Frames, winches, and LARS are designed to deploy and retrieve, such as uncrewed vehicles.

Welcome to the second installment of Okeanus’ new blog series, FROM WORKSHOP TO FIELD OPS, which profiles some of the innovative deck handling solutions that we design, engineer, and fabricate at our ISO 9001:2015 certified facility in Houston, Texas.