50-year-old US-built vessel gets equipment upgrade, goes to work in Africa

U.S.-headquartered TDI-Brooks has completed an upgrade on its 50-year-old survey vessel, expanding its seabed mapping capacity, before its new gig in West Africa.

The research vessel Gyre recently underwent a shipyard period in Las Palmas, during which its Kongsberg’s multibeam echosounder (MBES) was upgraded from an EM-302 to an EM-304 MKII, capable of high-resolution seabed mapping from 10 to more than 11,000 meters.

The vessel is currently back in West Africa, precisely in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, following a three-year break working mainly in the Americas.

According to TDI-Brooks, Gyre’s previous visit to West Africa took place in April 2020, during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, when it completed a multi-client seep hunting project in Nigeria for TGS.

The 54.7-meter vessel, built by Halter Marine in 1973, has an 181m² open deck and is powered by two Cat D-398 main engines. It offers accommodation for 35 persons.

TDI-Brooks also recently carried out a six-month retrofit campaign for a new vessel called RV Nautilus, formerly known as Nautical Geo, which in March arrived on the U.S. East Coast where it will perform offshore wind work.