Cheetah goes to Georgia

Jan 11th, 2015

After the successful delivery of five marine survey catamarans to Ukraine, Cheetah Marine has now completed a Cheetah 7.9m Survey vessel for Georgia. Powered by 100hp Honda four stroke outboard engines, the boat follows the standard survey package specification which has proved to be so successful in many countries.

One of the key features is the Cheetah stainless steel Hydropod which houses the multibeam echo sounder, in this case, a Reson 7125. This can be raised and lowered through the moonpool in the deck accurately enough so that the multibeam does not have to be recalibrated after each time it is used. A triangulated aft frame houses the winch which controls the multibeam head.

All the stainless steel work, keel bands, roof mast gantry and safety rails was fabricated in Cheetah’s in house workshop. 2 x 150 litre aluminium inbuilt fuel tanks, built in house, provide for many hours of surveying. Hydrive hydraulic steering was supplied by Southern Cross Marine. A 2 kva Honda generator adds to the power supplied by the Honda outboards. Standard stainless steel Cheetah 19” computer racking is fitted with rubber mountings to absorb any vibration.

The cab fit out comprises helm and navigator’s seat on storage pods, a bench seat behind the helm, a folding keyboard table in front of the navigator’s seat and a Wallace diesel cab heater to combat the very low temperatures.

Cheetah designer, Sean Strevens is optimistic about the future. “We are developing a new 6.9m which will carry more weight than the original 6m series and also suit hydrographic survey with multibeam” he said. “We have some exciting projects underway for 2015 including the start of the hydrogen powered trials and testing of the high power diesel outboards”.

A similar hydrographic survey 7.9m is shown below. 

Thanks to British Geological Survey and OceanDTM for use of this clip