Galveston’s R/V Trident Awarded “Significant Workboat Of The Year”
Texas A&M University at Galveston’s new R/V Trident has been named “Significant Workboat of 2015” by Workboat magazine.
Texas A&M University at Galveston’s new R/V Trident has been named “Significant Workboat of 2015” by Workboat magazine at the International Workboat Show in New Orleans.
Texas A&M-Galveston took delivery of the new $2.5 million research vessel in June 2015. This state-of-the-art custom vessel supports the academic, training and research needs of the growing Galveston campus
The Trident was designed in conjunction with Fyffe Yachts in Kemah, Texas and constructed by GEO Shipyards in New Iberia, La., with an emphasis on efficiency, durability and multi-mission capability.
In order to receive the award, the boat must have come into service in 2015 and have a uniqueness that sets it ahead of other vessels featured in Workboat magazine. The magazine’s editors highlighted the Trident’s multi-mission capability, fuel economy and speed as deciding factors in the award.
The Trident was conceived over two years ago as a replacement for vessels that were no longer adequate for the growing mission of this gulf-side campus. “This vessel gives us capabilities we have never had at the university in an economical and environmentally friendly platform,” said RADM Robert Smith III USN (Ret.), Texas A&M-Galveston CEO.
The vessel is an all-aluminum 65-foot catamaran with a unique canoe hull and z-bow configuration allowing it to slip through the water with ease.
“This gives the Trident a cruising speed of at least 15 knots with a fuel consumption as low as 35 gallons per hour and an exhaust gas reduction of 60 percent from our previous vessels,” said Capt. Allan Post, executive director of Marine Education Support and Safety Operations at Texas A&M Galveston.
A Texas Emissions Reduction Grant was awarded by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and will partially offset the cost of the vessel.
The Trident has the capacity for accommodating 44 passengers within 20 miles of shore and eight scientists out to 200 miles from shore. It has the capacity to support a wide range of underwater exploration, including diving, subsea ROVs, flow-through water sampling, subsea geology coring and a host of others.
The Trident also has the capability to act as an underway terrestrial and electronic navigation lab for our Texas A&M Maritime Academy midshipmen so they can practice the skills learned in the classroom in a high-impact learning environment in real time,” said Post. The vessel will also be used with numerous other marine biology and oceanographic academic labs to provide students with the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience in gathering data to support research and learning.
