Barter Ships

About OFEG Ships

Each OFEG member operates its own fleet of research vessels for all types of research; coastal, arctic and deep sea.

Further information on the research vessels can be viewed by selecting a vessel, grouped by country, from the menu to the left.

Research Vessel Classifications

The ship classifications below have been used in previous studies by working groups of the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) and the European Science Foundation Marine Board.

Global Class research ships are large (>65 metres) and currently operate on at least a multi-ocean scale, e.g. RV L’Atalante, RRS James Cook and RV Meteor.

Ocean Class research ships are large enough (>55 metres) and currently operate on an ocean scale, e.g. RV Pelagia, RV Poseidon.

Regional Class research ships currently generally operate on a European regional scale, e.g. RV Alkor and Garcia del Cid.

Barter exchange protocols for ship time

• The programming of ship-time will remain the sole responsibility of the owner.
• The ship-time barter costs in the table below cover all ship related costs (incl. victual, fuel and port charges).
• For barter cruises that take advantage of the ship’s passage, the barter cost may only be for the days that are additional to passage.
• All mobilisation and demobilisation time for barter cruises will be provided at an additional barter cost to the borrower.
• All ship-time will be provided with support for all of the ship’s fitted systems at no additional barter cost to the borrower – with the exception of the multibeam echo sounder.
• All ship-time will, when required, be provided with the owner’s CTD system and a technician to support it. This may however be at an additional cost to the borrower.

Barter exchange valuations for ships

* Polarstern is currently available for joint cruises but not for exchange of ship time.