Copernicana: a 6-metre workboat built for underwater research
Some boats take you to the site. This one was built to help researchers investigate it.
Meet Copernicana – a specialised version of our TRV 600 W Cabin, built for the Centre for Underwater Archaeology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland.
At first glance, it is a compact 6-metre aluminium workboat.
Look closer and the purpose of the boat becomes clear.
Copernicana was configured to support hydrographic survey equipment, underwater research and diving operations. According to the Centre, the vessel serves as a survey platform, diving vessel and mobile field laboratory.
For us, it is also a great example of what the TRV range was designed to be: a professional aluminium workboat platform that can be configured around a very specific job.
It started with a very different set of requirements
Building a boat for underwater archaeologists is not the same as building a standard utility workboat.
The Centre needed a mobile platform capable of supporting its specialist research equipment and field operations in different locations.
That requirement shaped Copernicana.
The boat is based on our TRV 600 W Cabin, measuring 6.00 m in length and 2.05 m in beam. The standard model has a hull weight of 550 kg, a load capacity of 500 kg and CE design category C.
Its relatively compact dimensions also make the platform trailerable – an important feature for a research team that needs to work at different sites.
According to the Centre, Copernicana can be deployed in environments ranging from small lakes and rivers to the Baltic Sea and research locations in the Mediterranean.
In this case, mobility is not simply convenient.
It is part of what makes the boat useful.
A workboat built around specialist equipment
One of the key systems used aboard Copernicana is the Centre’s MBES – Multibeam Echo Sounder.
The Centre uses multibeam sonar to collect detailed information about the seabed, supporting the creation of bathymetric maps and 3D models and helping researchers locate features such as wrecks and submerged wooden structures.
Our role was not to develop the sonar or tell archaeologists how to use it.
Our job was to give that technology a practical working platform on the water.
And that distinction is important.
On a professional workboat, specialist equipment cannot be treated as an afterthought. The way a boat is configured affects where equipment can be installed, how operators can work around it and how effectively the available deck space can be used.
Copernicana shows what happens when the vessel and its intended equipment are considered as parts of the same working platform.
And MBES was not the only consideration
The Centre wanted the platform to support more than one research method.
According to information published by the Centre for Underwater Archaeology, Copernicana has also been prepared to accommodate different types of magnetometers.
Marine magnetometers can be used in underwater archaeological surveys to detect magnetic anomalies associated with ferrous objects, including material that may be covered by seabed sediments.
For us as the boatbuilder, the important part of the story is the flexibility this requires from the platform.
A professional research boat may need to work with equipment that changes between projects. Providing a practical platform for those operations therefore requires thinking beyond one fixed equipment configuration.
Prepared to look beneath the seabed
Another particularly interesting requirement involved equipment for investigating what lies below the seabed.
During the development of Copernicana, the Centre worked with Innomar Technologie GmbH in Germany on preparing the vessel for the installation of a parametric sub-bottom profiler.
This type of acoustic equipment is used to investigate sediment layers and structures beneath the seabed and has applications in underwater archaeological research.
Copernicana later underwent successful tests in Rostock, Germany, where the integration of the vessel’s MBES with Innomar equipment was tested.
According to the Centre for Underwater Archaeology, the resulting configuration makes Copernicana the first strictly research-oriented vessel of this type in Europe.
For us, this part of the project demonstrates something broader.
A specialised workboat does not necessarily need to be large.
It needs to be designed around what has to happen on board.
Six metres. And a surprisingly long list of jobs.
One of the things we like most about Copernicana is the contrast between its dimensions and its role.
It is still based on a 6-metre TRV 600 W Cabin.
Yet the Centre describes it as a survey platform, diving vessel and mobile field laboratory.
It supports specialist hydrographic equipment.
It has been prepared for additional research systems.
It can support diving teams.
And it can be transported between research locations.
This is exactly why we believe the specification of a professional boat should begin with the work it needs to perform – not simply with its length.
A research platform that can travel with the team
Copernicana’s mobility is not theoretical.
The vessel has already been used during research in Zadar, Croatia.
The Centre for Underwater Archaeology carries out research in Poland and participates in international projects, including cooperation with the International Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Zadar and the Practical Mariner project in Corsica with the University of Oxford.
A trailerable platform gives the team the possibility of taking its own specialised research boat to different locations instead of limiting the vessel to one operating area.
That is a very specific requirement.
But solving specific requirements is exactly what custom workboats are about.
Built for people who know exactly what they need their boat to do
The Centre for Underwater Archaeology brings more than four decades of experience in underwater research at Nicolaus Copernicus University.
Its work includes underwater archaeological research, sonar surveys, 3D and geodetic documentation, archaeological supervision and field investigations.
The Centre has worked at sites including Lake Lednica, Biskupin and the medieval harbour in Puck, as well as internationally, and is a member of the UNESCO UNITWIN Network for Underwater Archaeology.
They know underwater archaeology.
We know aluminium boats.
Copernicana is what happens when those two areas of expertise meet.
The specialists define what they need to accomplish on the water. Our task is to translate those operational requirements into a practical aluminium workboat.
This is what we mean by a purpose-built TRV
Copernicana may be one of the more unusual examples, but the thinking behind it is fundamental to our TRV workboat range.
When we discuss a professional boat with a customer, the first questions are rarely about optional accessories.
We want to understand the operation.
Where will the boat work?
What will the crew actually do on board?
What equipment needs to be carried or installed?
How much working space does the operation require?
How will the boat be transported?
Only then does the configuration begin to make sense.
For Copernicana, the answers led to a compact aluminium research platform supporting hydrographic equipment and diving operations.
For another TRV, the answers can lead somewhere completely different.
Different mission. Different TRV.
Our TRV aluminium workboats are used as professional platforms for a variety of tasks.
Depending on the model and configuration, they can be adapted for survey and research operations, equipment transport, infrastructure support, technical services and other professional work on inland and coastal waters.
Copernicana is a particularly good example because the requirements were so specialised.
It shows that customisation is not about adding more options to a standard boat.
It is about understanding what the boat needs to do – and building around that purpose.
What does your workboat need to do?
Your operation probably has very little to do with underwater archaeology.
That is exactly why this project matters.
You may need to carry specialist equipment. You may need a particular working deck. You may operate from different locations. Or you may have an application we have not built for before.
We don’t need to be the experts in your profession.
You bring the mission. We bring the boatbuilding expertise.
Tell us what the boat needs to do, where it needs to operate and what equipment needs to work on board.
That is where we start.
Ultra Marine
We build boats that truly work.
See more models from our workboat series
- Engine power 65 - 600 hp
- Length 5.5 - 9 m
- Hull shape Deep V-shape
The TRV series is the perfect workboats for sea and bay operations, featuring a deep-V hull shape. All models are characterized by a spacious deck, a wide bow above the waterline, and a fast and stable shape underwater. Most models have opening bow doors and cabins, that are design according to customer requirements. A broad range of deck set up options – from cargo securing brackets, cranes, foldable benches to comfortable upholstered sofas or rows of seats, allows each unit to be customized to the unique needs of the client. With customization options, these boats can become the perfect combination of a work vessel with recreational functionality.
TRV series boats are often used in harsh polar conditions and can operate even beyond the Arctic Circle, as well as on the Mediterranean Sea with Bimini and sundecks for pure recreation.
Versions with opening bow doors are designated as LC.
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