Grant Award IR£2,114,234

The construction of the Research Vessel Celtic Voyager fulfils the requirements of sub-measure 8.1 of the Marine Research Measure of the Operational Programme for Fisheries (1994-1999):

Provision of an enhanced research vessel capability serving the data requirements of the marine sector and marine research communities.

The Celtic Voyager is Ireland's first custom-built, multi-purpose, research vessel and replaces the RV Lough Beltra (1978-1997), a veteran of over 300 scientific missions. Built in The Netherlands and delivered in July 1997, the Celtic Voyager is part of a planned expansion of the Irish research vessel fleet and provides an essential research, training and monitoring facility for work in Irish coastal waters.

The vessel has wet, dry and electronic laboratories with permanently fitted standard equipment. A Data Acquisition System collects underway data from a range of sensors including a thermosalinograph, turbidity meter, fluorometer, ADCP, dual frequency depth sounder and RoxAnn. This equipment was transferred from the Celtic Voyager's predecessor, the Lough Beltra. The data collected is managed by the Marine Institute's Marine Data Centre.

The Celtic Voyager is registered as a Class 8 vessel and is further classified by Lloyds as LMC, Research Vessel. The Lloyds classification means that it is built and operated to the very highest of standards.