Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

Photos Provided By Mark Swingle

Wesleyan s vessel finally available for research

By Lauren Perry

laperry@vwc.edu

Four years ago, Virginia Wesleyan announced to freshman students that by fall of 2006 they would have a research vessel available for use. Those students are about to graduate just one month before the long-awaited completion of The Ocean Explorer.

The tale of The Ocean Explorer is a strange one. It was in spring of 2005 when students first heard about the research vessel that would enable them to expand their scientific studies on the Chesapeake Bay. After about two years passed and no boat was to be seen, The Marlin Chronicle began to investigate. A full report was published in the fall of 2008, explaining how the man contracted to make the boat, Rick Arvidson, had abandoned his company, taken his remaining cash and fled both Virginia as well as many unhappy customers, two of which were Virginia Wesleyan and the Virginia Aquarium.

 The delay in the delivery of the research vessel, while unfortunate, was not foreseeable, said Dean of the College Timothy O Rourke.  The Virginia Aquarium acted expeditiously to develop an alternative plan for acquiring a boat when the initial plan fell through.

Director of Research and Conservation for the Virginia Aquarium, Mark Swingle has worked on this project since its beginning and was one of the first to know that something was wrong. After Arvidson stopped answering his calls, Swingle decided to act.

 We knew we wanted to get it out of his shop as soon as possible, he said.

The unfinished boat was found in Arvidson s abandoned warehouse in Exmore, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Aquarium took the initiative to move it to Chesfield, Md., where it is now, on sale for $40,000.

 I m not sure we re gonna get that much, said Swingle.  We ll just have to wait and see.

But Swingle is excited about the new Ocean Explorer, which he described as  perfect.

 It will be better than the boat we had, he said.

The vessel is 3 feet smaller, but with a wider and bigger deck. It was made in Nova Scotia by Doucette Boatbuilders Ltd., a family company with a strong reputation in Canada. The vessel sits in Chester, Md., for now, being retrofitted with all of the long-awaited features that were in the original plans, such as computer equipment, an observation deck, a winch and a small crane.

 It s an incredibly nice boat, said Swingle.  The people working on it now had never seen a boat like it. It gets lots of compliments.

The Ocean Explorer will be completely done by June, just after the freshmen who first learned about it have graduated and move on from the college.

Swingle, O Rourke, faculty, students and many others are anxious to see the research vessel used for the first time in the fall, after a long four years.