History & Construction of R/V Whalesong II

History & Construction Of Whalesong II

WhaleSong II started life as a tuna longliner operating out of Fremantle, Western Australia. She was one of the top catching vessels in the fleet and was well maintained and used by Vinci Seafoods and Captain Paul Copeland.

We saw her huge fuel carrying capacity and good sea keeping qualities combined with state of the art electronics as a perfect fit in our own evolution to deep water research. WhaleSong II has a cruising range of 5000 nautical miles and bristles with aerials for links to seas surface temperature satellites, communication satellites and tracking beacons amongst others.

Of course there was a need for adapting this fishing vessel into a live aboard research vessel. After discussing our needs with several builders and designers, we pulled the then “Genesis” out of the water at North Port Boat Lifters in Fremantle and let Dave Matheson’s highly skilled team begin the 5 month transformation. Special thanks goes to Donny Woods, Shane Hornsey , Bart Kok , and Jeremy Franklin.

Many suppliers were keen to help us with the transformation, and people like John Nicolopoulos at Saint Gobain (fiberglass products), Rob Flintoff at AMI (hardware), Keith Morgan at Morgan Timbers, Entin Shah at AFPT (foam products), Rob Lynn at Wiltrading ,Peter Meegan at Autoblast, Charlie Tranchita at Fremantle Hydraulics, Jaime Oreb at Hamilton Engineering, Colin Clarke at Arrow Electrics and Trevor Richards at Yacht Grot, were willing and able partners. These men and their companies supplied their time, materials and expertise to our project and really made this boat a reality. Many thanks!