C-MAX announces the availability of the Industry’s first Portable Underway Profiling Winch

The Vigo underway profiling winch is primarily aimed at deploying sound velocity profilers for multibeam surveys, although it can be used with other instruments such as CTD profilers. It features an integrated extending boom which positions the line deployment pulley over the stern. This allows for rapid installation without any vessel modifications. The Vigo’s Ethernet connection enables the winch to be controlled from any web browser with no additional software installation required.

When a profile is required the winch allows the profiler to free fall through the water column for a calculated period of time while the survey vessel continues on its course. The free fall time is calculated from factors such a the profiler type and the required drop depth. Once the profiler has been recovered and the data wirelessly uploaded, the achieved drop depth is extracted from this data and used to fine tune the free fall time for the next deployment. The drop depth can be set to automatically follow the value from an echo sounder.

Hugh Frater, responsible for the development of the system’s software, said “This level of integration means that the surveyor can concentrate on the other survey tasks without either stopping the vessel to take a profile or being concerned that the profiler might strike the seabed.” Although the Vigo is not the first underway profiling winch the only competing systems are so much heavier that once installed they can not be readily moved. They are also outside the price range of many potential users.

For more information visit www.vigowinch.com