A short description of the various ships we use is provided below.
The R/V Tethys-II is a 25-m research vessel. It is part of the French National fleet of coastal boats managed by the "division technique de l'INSU". For more details, see here. We use it for the monthly cruise program.
The Castor-02 vessel is a 49-meter dynamic position ship. It is owned by the "Foselev" private company, and is based in Toulon. We hire it for all buoy deployment and recovery cruises. For more details, see here.
The Sagitta-III research vessel (12m) is the new unit of the Villefranche observatory. It is used occasionally to service the BOUSSOLE site.
The GG-IX is a 15-meter aluminium catamaran, equipped with a crane and a large working area. It was managed by the SAMAR company until the end of 2005. Since January of 2006, it is managed by the IX-survey company, based in La Seyne/mer. We hire this boat for on-demand short cruises on the buoy site (diving, instrument rotations, reparation etc..). It was used for the first time in July of 2004 for a rotation of the upper buoy superstructure, in conjunction with an helicopter.
"Le Suroît" (images copyright IFREMER) is a 56-m research vessel. It is part of the French National fleet of research vessels managed by "IFREMER - GENAVIR". For more details, see here. We used this ship for the AOPEX cruise, from July 31, 2004 to August 17, 2004.
