Clothing:

Several new items of clothing, the same models as the Antarctic Division issue, were first used by VUWAE members this season, and were all very successful. Minor problems were found with the bib-overalls which had some wear patches which were too small and too lightly sewn in stress areas. We also tried New Zealand manufactured wool felt booties in the normal Japanese mukluks. These booties are more expensive than the conventional mukluk inner boot but give superior warmth and ankle support.

Equipment:

See Transport section for report on the Antarctic Division "Cantago" sledge, IH-500 tractor and Snotric 047 toboggan.

Scientific Equipment:

This season the "sphincter corer" performed "with distinction", the triggering problem encountered last season having been eliminated with a new design. The poor penetration by the corer in some parts of the sound is definitely attributable to a hard gravelly sea floor. Even in this sediment short undisturbed cores were often retrieved.

We are still learning how to operate the corer with successive attempts and minor accidents such as losing weights should be prevented in future.

The limitations of the winch which performed well last season were discovered this season. The extra lead weights on the corer and deeper water created a 600m depth limit to our operation even though there was sufficient cable for 1000m. unfortunately, testing the winch in deep water around New Zealand requires a large ship and great expense.

The underwater camera was the one major item of equipment which did not work successfully. The camera and flash components were borrowed from NZOI and mounted in our housing as in a previous season. Our unfamiliarity with the components and lack of time are probably the main reasons for the problems.