Freire Shipyard launches an oceanographic dedicated to HP founder

The David Packard research vessel, being built in Vigo, will carry out surveys over a thousand meters deep.

In a prolific year in the construction of mega yachts, Freire Shipyard yesterday added a new milestone in its line of business specializing in marine research vessels. The shipyard from Vigo launched the oceanographic RV David Packard, designed for an American shipowner. The ship is already floating in the waters of the estuary, a year after the sheet metal was cut.

Paulino Freire shipyards build the ship for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), in the United States. It is almost fifty meters in length and 12.8 in beam. It reaches a speed of 12 knots and its autonomy is twenty-one days. The boat has a capacity for thirty people, twelve crew members and eighteen scientists. «This state-of-the-art research vessel will expand the Institute's reach and enhance our research, engineering development, and outreach efforts». It replaces the Western Flyer. Freire will equip the ship with ROV-type systems capable of
Freire Shipyard is scheduled to deliver the ship throughout 2023. Yesterday afternoon it was back on the stands of the Vigo shipyard, wearing its white and blue colors.

David Packard
The new Vigo construction pays homage to David Packard, co-founder of the American technology company Hewlett-Packard, known as HP. His partner in the computer triumph was Bill Hewlett. As the North American shipowner explains, "the oceans became a focus of attention for David." In the 1980s, he financed the birth of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Years later, Packard created the Research Institute that today has established ties with the naval sector in Vigo. A visionary of ROVs, the founder of HP advocated sending instruments to the sea and not people, according to reports from the North American institution.

(Source: La Voz de Galicia)