Ship models from Juan Ignacio Argaluza

In my post of 10 April 2008 in this blog I wrote a note about the historic racing yacht Hispania, recently rebuilt at Astilleros de Mallorca, recovering an authentic jewel of sport shipbuilding, of true both technical and historical interest.

A few days ago I was phoned by  Juan Ignacio Argaluza, Getxo's neighbor like me, whom I did not meet before, informing me that he was building a model of the sail yacht Tuiga, twin of Hispania, and having read my blog note he had got an interest in commenting to me on some respects . A few days later I visited him at his home and he showed me the model of the Tuiga's hull , under construction, and told me he was finding some problems due to lack of ship's drawings that will guide his work.

Tuiga hull's model (click to zoom)

 Hispania at Astilleros de Mallorca

Naval Architects from Basque Country inaugurate a new managing board

On First day of December, on proceeded to confirm the appointment of the new members of the managing board of the COIN  Delegation in the Basque Country, for a further period of four years, in a simple ceremony held at hotel Igeretxe, Getxo, with an associates assistance  rather large for what is usual in such a kind of event.

"El escorpión", artículo de José Luis Peñalva en El Correo

Destaco esta frase que me ha gustado mucho, porque es muy cierta, al menos en lo que se refiere al perro.

"Leí en alguna parte que Dios hizo el corazón de los hombres, pero un perro se lo llevó, y no queriendo volver al punto de partida puso en su lugar una piedra."

 I enclose an aproximate English translation:

I emphasize following sentence that I really liked, because it is very true, at least in regard to dog.

"I read somewhere that God made the heart of men, but a dog took it, and unwilling to return to the starting point put  a stone instead."

Panama Canal enlargement

It has recently been published some news about the approval by the Government of Panama of an enlargement of its maritime Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This project has had several years of preparation and the final approval required a referendum from the citizens of Panama, as stated by its Constitution. The completion of the works is planned for late 2014, one hundred years after the opening of the Canal, whose project was initiated by the French engineer and diplomat Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps.

The enlargement includes several types of performances but the most visible from the naval engineering point of view is the building of new locks at both ends of the Canal, of greater length and breadth than the current ones, to allow an increase of the maximum length and breadth of vessels which can enter these locks, that are currently 294,10 m and 32,20 m respectively. The maximum ship breadth allowable in the enlarged locks, will be ab. 53,50 m, which will increase the size of ships able to transit through the Canal. Details of the award of this locks enlargement work can be read in Ref. (1), where it is reported that the Consortium winning the competition open to select a contractor, presented an offer of 3.220 million USD.

LA NAVAL Y LA RÍA

(Autor: Juan José Alonso Verástegui)

A las 16,30 horas del 9 de julio de 1917 la jovencísima madrina Carmen de Zubiría rompía la botella en la proa del vapor Conde de Zubiría en la ceremonia de la primera botadura del astillero de la Naval en Sestao. Para entonces la Compañía Euskalduna ya tenía a flote su construcción nº 39, el vapor escuela Artagan Mendi para Sota y Aznar, que lucía en su popa un mascarón de la Virgen de Begoña. Había sido lanzado al agua el 9 de junio en una muy feliz y festejada botadura en las anteriores mareas vivas, inaugurando también grada. En la del Conde de Zubiría hubo problemas con los sebos de las imadas y el barco se paró a mitad de trayecto y continuó hacia el agua 4 horas después cuando ya se habían marchado todos los invitados. Sufrió una avería en el casco y una copla que le hicieron los bilbaínos:

Ship tonnage: Its use and  an aproximate calculation method.

DEFINITIONS


The concept of ship tonnage is related to her size or volume, but it is not a physical particular than can be expressed in any measurement unit, but it is the result of some calculations performed with the ship's dimensions by applying a set of agreed rules.


Until recent times the words ship tonnage were suggesting that they referred to a weight when actually it is a volumetric concept. Ship tonnage nowadays is adimensional.


There are three tonnage classes: Gross, Net and Compensated gross

La Naval shipyard, of the Spanish shipbuilding group CNN builds a fall pipe type ship 

Last February La Naval shipyard, from Sestao, near Bilbao, launched the ship "Simon Stevin", of fall pipe type, having a double mission, rock dumping in water depths up to 1.700 m, and, at the other hand, deep water mineral mining. Rock dumping is devoted to marine works such as protection of submarine cables and pipes, sea bottom refilling in underwater works, etc.



This type of ship is a new one in Spanish shipbuilding and only a few of them are in operation worldwide.

La Naval from Sestao builds the world biggest suction trailing dredge

The dredge, named "Cristobal Colón", was contracted by the belgian company Jan de Nul Group, to be built by Constructores Navales del Norte (CNN) in their shipyard at Sestao, Spain, where, at present, they are ultimating her outfitting.

Main dredge particulars:

Cargo hopper capacity 46.000 m3
Deadweight 78.000 Tm
Total length 223,00 m
Breadth 41,00 m
Load draugth 15,15 m
Suction pipe diameter 1.300 mm
Maximum dredging depth 155,00 m
Propulsion power 2 x 19.200 Kw
Pumping output at dredging 2 x 6.500 Kw
Pumping output at discharging 16.000 Kw
Total diesel installed power 41.500 Kw
Speed 18 knots
Accommodations for 46

Here you can see some photos of the dredge in the yard