@jwhis Your Welcome. These are VARs Buoy custom made for kelp system. @clifford_goudey is the SME and can explain these better and purpose of these buoys. Will be installed on Prince of Wales Island Alaska.
@jwhis Julia, these are Variable Displacement Spar Buoys (VDSBs), major items in the Kodiac and the Puerto Rico catenary arrays. They serve as the attachment node at each corner of the catenary modules. They provide the primary buoyancy for the farm structure and make for a very stable grid for supporting the catenary lines and their growlines. The six we are supplying to Den for his Shitak Bay farm are 16' tall and 18" in diameter. The "variable" part is the ability to change the amount of air in the lower chamber of the buoy to raise or lower it. Pumped up, the attachent points for deploying the growline assembly come to the surface, making it easier to do the hook up. Similarly, the whole farm can be raised for more efficient seeding and at least the catenary and ends of the growlines can be raised at harvest time. When all the air is vented from the lower ballast chamber, the buoy sinks. This is a feature desired at the Puerto Rico farm where we are exposed to the caribbean and have already endured a direct hit from a hurricane. The strategy is to sink the farm on the approach of the storm and bring it back to the surface after; hopefully saving the crop. As farms in other areas venture into open waters, this may become important. I can send you more information if you are interested. Cliff
@denduang_chevaviroj Whoa!!! Can you say a little more about what we're looking at?? Thanks for sharing!!
@jwhis
Your Welcome.
These are VARs Buoy custom made for kelp system.
@clifford_goudey is the SME and can explain these better and purpose of these buoys.
Will be installed on Prince of Wales Island Alaska.
@jwhis
Julia, these are Variable Displacement Spar Buoys (VDSBs), major items in the Kodiac and the Puerto Rico catenary arrays. They serve as the attachment node at each corner of the catenary modules. They provide the primary buoyancy for the farm structure and make for a very stable grid for supporting the catenary lines and their growlines. The six we are supplying to Den for his Shitak Bay farm are 16' tall and 18" in diameter.
The "variable" part is the ability to change the amount of air in the lower chamber of the buoy to raise or lower it. Pumped up, the attachent points for deploying the growline assembly come to the surface, making it easier to do the hook up. Similarly, the whole farm can be raised for more efficient seeding and at least the catenary and ends of the growlines can be raised at harvest time.
When all the air is vented from the lower ballast chamber, the buoy sinks. This is a feature desired at the Puerto Rico farm where we are exposed to the caribbean and have already endured a direct hit from a hurricane. The strategy is to sink the farm on the approach of the storm and bring it back to the surface after; hopefully saving the crop. As farms in other areas venture into open waters, this may become important. I can send you more information if you are interested.
Cliff
@jwhis
Your Welcome.
These are VARs Buoy custom made for kelp system.
@clifford_goudey is the SME and can explain these better and purpose of these buoys.
Will be installed on Prince of Wales Island Alaska.
@jwhis
Julia, these are Variable Displacement Spar Buoys (VDSBs), major items in the Kodiac and the Puerto Rico catenary arrays. They serve as the attachment node at each corner of the catenary modules. They provide the primary buoyancy for the farm structure and make for a very stable grid for supporting the catenary lines and their growlines. The six we are supplying to Den for his Shitak Bay farm are 16' tall and 18" in diameter.
The "variable" part is the ability to change the amount of air in the lower chamber of the buoy to raise or lower it. Pumped up, the attachent points for deploying the growline assembly come to the surface, making it easier to do the hook up. Similarly, the whole farm can be raised for more efficient seeding and at least the catenary and ends of the growlines can be raised at harvest time.
When all the air is vented from the lower ballast chamber, the buoy sinks. This is a feature desired at the Puerto Rico farm where we are exposed to the caribbean and have already endured a direct hit from a hurricane. The strategy is to sink the farm on the approach of the storm and bring it back to the surface after; hopefully saving the crop. As farms in other areas venture into open waters, this may become important. I can send you more information if you are interested.
Cliff