One of the converted fishing vessels around is the 2008 built U BOAT NAVIGATOR.
She was built at Cinar Tersanecilik Ltd, Gemlik in Turkey as the fishing vessel ESAT KOCALI and in 2012 she was converted after being acquired by the submarine pilots and expert diving instructors father-and-son duo Eugene and Dmitry Tomashov. In fact she entered Grand Harbour, Malta on Wednesday 2nd May, 2012 around 1900 hrs after 60 minutes awaiting approval from the Maritime Authorities.
Before there was the U BOAT NAVIGATOR her team had operated a successful diving school in Malta. Then in 2012 they began to look at other opportunities to further their interest in underwater exploration which included historical wrecks, research and underwater filming, thus acquiring its own research vessel equipped with a deep sea submarine.
Mooring at Grand Harbour Marina (GHM) she was upgraded slowly and at first she had a C-Questor 2 submersible built by U-Boat Worx of Breda, Holland which can carry 2 persons.
Entering/Leaving Grand Harbour during July 2016.
She’s equipped with a custom Triton 3300/3 three-seat submersible and a custom Triton 3300/1 one-seater, which conducts tandem dives with the larger sub for safety and high-quality filming. Sitting on her aft deck, the subs have a working depth of 3,000 feet for exploration in some of oceans’ hardest to reach locations.
Late in 2020 she was lifted on her hard at the MMH facilities and emerged with a grey hull.
And during May, 2021 she shifted to Manoel Island Marina.
Watermarked Photos are by Capt. Lawrence Dalli otherwise stated. NO PHOTOS can be used or manipulated without our permission. © All rights reserved. Malta Ship Photos & Action Photos – www.maltashipphotos.com
Published – Thursday 24th June, 2021.
