MD Explorer?
Sounds like the one in my book...
As for landing on vesselt with skids and net... I wouldn't want to do that. In fact, when we land regularly on russian ice-breakers we ask them to remove the nets (they want them to avoid the wheels of the MI8 from rolling around). Imagine a slight back-slip when lifting off with a squirrel - spurs on the skids. Tangled in and getting stuck. Ouch!