A boat that St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s marine science faculty say they wanted from the day the program was proposed finally tied up on campus Wednesday, ending a roughly four-year trip from a federal budget line to the college waterfront.
The R/V CY46, a 46-foot research vessel, reached St. Mary’s City just before noon on Oct. 7, according to the college. Along the way, the crew carried out a data-collection request from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the college said. The boat, and the equipment that goes with it, was designed to let students study the biological, chemical and physical properties of the St. Mary’s River, the Lower Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay.
Cassie Gurbisz, associate professor of marine science, said a boat outfitted for teaching and research was a “must-have” piece of the curriculum from the first proposal. The college launched its marine science program in the fall of 2021 and describes it as the only undergraduate program of its kind in Maryland. Gurbisz said much of the program’s fieldwork so far has been done off the dock, which she called far from ideal for marine science undergraduates.
The vessel joins what the college lists as its academic fleet, which includes a 25-foot C-Hawk and a 23-foot maritime skiff docked at the college’s waterfront. The college said the older boats carry less than half as many people as the CY46, a difference that should let students and faculty get out more often. “We really want to make sure that from their first year all the way to when they graduate, they’re getting on the boat as many times as they can,” Gurbisz said.
The purchase was paid for with public money. U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-5th District, secured a $900,000 appropriation for the program in the fiscal year 2022 omnibus bill, the college said. Hoyer’s office had listed the request, $900,000 in Department of Education higher education funds for a research vessel and related equipment, when the House passed the package in July 2021. SMCM announced the award in November 2022, saying then that it would buy a vessel of roughly 40 to 55 feet plus instruments for studying the region’s waters. The college says it spent the entire award on two things: the vessel itself and the scientific equipment and instrumentation. The college did not say in its announcement what the boat cost, or whether other money went into the build; the figure released so far is the appropriation, not a final price.
Getting from appropriation to hull took a long run of paperwork. Sahar Shafqat, a dean at the college, oversaw the project, identifying stakeholders and learning the steps involved. “I worked to understand the obstacles, which involved working through some complicated legal, regulatory and financial issues,” she said. “There was understandably some hesitation in moving forward with a project of this scale, but I understood from the faculty just what a remarkable asset this research vessel would be for the program, the College, and our students, and that made it easy for me to champion the project.”
Faculty and staff worked with naval architect Iver Franzen and the builder, Composite Yacht of Royal Oak, Maryland, on the design. Bryan Lloyd, the college’s director of boat operations, checked on the build every week with on-site inspections. Gurbisz called the collaboration “very positive.” “We all worked together to turn a vision for what we wanted to accomplish into an actual design for a boat and then Composite Yacht built it,” she said.
Shafqat said after the boat’s arrival that she expects its reach to extend beyond marine science. “It’s a very exciting day,” she said. “I’m really proud that the College took a very bold step to support the curriculum and the students. It’s going to go so far in providing a unique experience for our students in marine science, environmental studies, biology, and potentially anthropology and archaeology.”
Gurbisz said she expects the vessel to serve mainly faculty and students over the long term, with some use by the broader scientific community. That fits a program that has steadily drawn outside research dollars, among them a NASA subaward of more than $500,000 to marine science assistant professor Matthew Breece for an Atlantic sturgeon prediction tool. Hoyer-secured federal money also went to the campus’s Marine Science Aquatic Lab renovation, and the college’s river work already includes alumni-led oyster planting in the St. Mary’s River sanctuary, a waterway the state recently ranked among its top oyster sanctuaries. The college did not announce a date for the vessel’s first student outing.
