Five Year Request for East Coast Winch Pool Facility (CY16-20) Year 1

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

A request is made by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to fund the operation of the East Coast Winch Pool. The investment in overboarding equipment is an expensive undertaking due to the high cost of purchase, maintenance and shipping of these systems. In an effort to not only ensure that these systems are available to researchers for their work but to also ensure that that they are properly maintained and available to the entire science community with expert support, NSF created the East Coast Winch Pool. This ?pool? was created to offer scientists a convenient single point of contact for all of their overboarding equipment needs as well as the expertise to provide them with creative engineering solutions for their unique requirements while at the same time reducing cost by pooling equipment for use by the scientific community. In 2009 NSF assigned the operation of the East Coast Winch Pool to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The range of responsibilities included: ? Single point of contact for overboarding systems ? Act as a center of expertise in winch use, maintenance and engineering support ? Provide portable winch systems in support of oceanographic research ? Provide expertise in tension member spooling for both portable and shipboard ? systems and the personnel to operate spooling equipment ? Maintain winches, spooling and overboarding equipment in top condition ? Schedule the use of equipment ? Provide shipping and handling logistics to get equipment to where it is needed ? Provide expertise for system setup and testing in the field ? Maintain, operate and provide UNOLS Long Core System ? Maintain, operate and provide Jason ROV launch and recovery system Six years since the formation of the pool, scientists, technicians and ship operators have come to recognize the pool as a center of expertise and a source of over-boarding systems with the reliability they expect in the harsh conditions that performing field work often presents. This proposal seeks the funds to cover five main objectives. 1) Provide technical expertise for engineering analysis, winch maintenance, and winch training. 2) Maintain the parts, supplies and tools required to keep equipment operating. 3) Adapt systems to specific scientific requirements through engineering, updating and modification. 4) Identify the needs of the scientific community and procure the necessary new equipment. 5) Provide for the scheduling, mobilization, demobilization, shipping, and logistics of Pool assets.