RV Kaharoa

Although designed primarily for coastal surveys, RV Kaharoa is capable of working throughout New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and further afield. In the last decade, the deployment of over 3000 ocean-profiling Argo floats has taken the vessel over 75,000 nautical miles, as far east as Chile and west as far as Mauritius.

Kaharoa can trawl to a depth of 600m and has been instrumental in surveying and assessing stocks of most of the inshore fish species around New Zealand.

The vessel is also used for other survey work in ocean physics, biology, ecology and geology.

Specifications and principal features

Name of Vessel	RV Kaharoa
Owner / Operator	NIWA Vessel Management Ltd, 301 Evans Bay Parade, Greta Point, P O Box 14 901, Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand. telephone (64 4) 386 0300, fax (64 4) 386 0555
Flag	New Zealand
Call Sign	ZM 7552
Port of Registry	Wellington
Classification	DNV 1A1
Safety Management	Lloyd’s Safe Ship Management System
Year of Construction	1981
Length	28.0 metres
Beam	8.2 metres
Draft	3.2 metres
Displacement	300 tonnes
Cruising speed	10.5 knots
Main Engines	Lister Blackstone 511 KW at 750 rpm
Main Generator	2 x Volvo 116 kW each
Propeller	Liaanen Control Pitch
Freshwater Capacity	21.3 cubic metres
Water Maker	approx. 1 tonne per day.
Fuel Capacity	48.8 cubic metres
Freezing Capacity	8.0 tonne insulated ice hold
Accommodation	5 scientific staff + 5 crew
Endurance	30 days
Rescue Boat	Lancer Inflatable SOLAS B
Work Boat	Can be provided

Lifting equipment

Seacrane	Hiab
A-Frame	Heavy-duty stern mounted gantry. Operates through an arc of 75 degrees with a lifting capacity 3.8 tonnes

Electronic and navigation equipment

Electrical supply	50 Hz
Gyro	Tokyo Keiki
Autopilot	Tokyo Keiki
Doppler Log	Ametek
Net Monitors	Scanmar Furuno CN22
Radars	Koden MD 3721 60-mile range Racal-Decca – Type 65614600
Video Plotter	Seaplot
Echo sounders	Koden CV 8814 colour sounder
GPS	2 x Furuno GP 50
Weather Fax	Furuno Dfax

Communication equipment

Marine Radios	Skanti 400 watt SSB radio teleophone Icom VHF
Watch Receiver	Skanti
Cell phone Fax	+64 27 442 7509 (when in range of the New Zealand Telecom network) +64 27 236 4932 (when in range of land based network)
Inmarsat Mini M Voice Fax	008 72 7 622 14760 008 72 7 622 14761

Winching equipment

2 Main Trawl Winches	Norwinch 1,500 metres 14mm 6x19 wire rope per winch.
2 Gilson Winches	Norwinch
1 Windlass	Norwinch
1 Net drum Winch	Norwinch
Acoustic Winch	Holds approx. 1,000 metres 12.5mm faired cable. Slipring fitted.
Hydrology Winch	Holds 3,000 metres 6mm wire.
CTD Winch	Holds 2,000 metres 6mm cable. Slipring.
Camera Winch	Holds 1,500metres camera cable. Slipring.

Additional equipment (mobilised as required)

Side Scan Sonar	Klein dual frequency side scan sonar. C-MAX side scan sonar
Sub bottom profiling system	Geo Acoustics profiler
Magnetometer	SeaSPY towed system
Hydrographic sounders	Echotrac – 24 and 200 kHz Multibeam echo sounder
Survey navigation systems	HydroPro
Motion compensation	TSS DMS TSS POS/MV
Sound velocity calibration	Expendable Bathythermographs (XBTs) Digibar DB-1100 AML SVplus sound velocity profiler
Seabed sampling	Rock dredges and grab samplers
Tide measurements	Current, level, etc meters

The information provided on this webpage is for general informational purposes only and may be subject to change. For detailed specifications and additional information, please contact us directly.