Safe Return to Port

Jaime Oliver's lecture in RINA

At the end of last February an international conference entitled "Design and operation of passenger ships" was held in London, at the RINA's headquarters (Royal Institution of Naval Architects), whose 52 lecturers from 10 countries developed, in 14 papers, a series of new ideas and thoughts on the development of ships technology. 

Ballast-free ships

In the realm of ships, ballast is a fixed or transitory weight that must be placed on board to solve or alleviate what I name " ballast-related problems" (BRPs), what means those problems that can fixed by using ballast. For example, BRPs are a poor ship's stability, insufficient or inadequate drafts, propeller(s) incomplete immersion, excessive ship movements at sea, etc.

"Begoña del Mar"

A new ship model from Juan Carlos Gorostiza

 A few days ago Guillermo Avanzini sent to me an information on the new model built by our mutual friend Juan Carlos Gorostiza, about whose wide and remarkable production I posted an entry in this blog here. 

This time it comes to  the ship  "Begoña del Mar", third  in a series that was built in the 60's for the Company Equimar Maritima and was built in Corbasa (Santander)  at 1970.

Classification Societies

 Public presentation of the José Antonio Reyero's book

 The Maritime Administration School of the Transport Department from the Basque Government held on 25 January an event entitled "The Classification Societies", whose central theme was the presentation of the book with the same name by author José Antonio Reyero, with a second part by Juan José Alonso Berástegui, which related a few brief memories of his experiences as a naval architect and as a director in Bilbao shipyards, where he met professionally with such a kind of organizations, and finally the meeting was closed by Luis Cañada Vicinay, President of the Basque Maritime Forum. The event was held at the auditorium of the Bilbao Maritime Museum.

Presentation: José Luis Trueba

The event began with an opening by the School of Maritime Administration Director, José Luis Trueba, followed by a welcome greeting by Bernabé Unda, Director of the Industry, Innovation, Trade and Tourism  Department in the Basque Government, and then the speakers proceed to present their respective contributions.

Triality: An innovative project of VLCC tanker 
 Accomplished by Det Norske Veritas (DNV)

In early December Classification Society DNV published a preliminary information on his new project, named Triality,  a VLCC size tanker (aprx. 300.000 TPM) embodying a number of features that show it as an innovative oil tanker, emphasizing its ecological character, non-polluting the environment, sea and air, all at a lower operating cost than a conventional tanker of same capacity.

A visit to ferry "Volcán del Teide" in Astilleros de Santander (Santander Shipyards)

On 28 December a group of friends were invited by Jaime Oliver to visit in Santander Shipyards, the ferry ship "Volcan del Teide", which at those days was being painted and finishing works before her delivery to her owner "Naviera Armas", so ending the construction of the vessel built  in Vigo's (Spain) H.J. Barreras.

 

A model of sailing vessel "Tuiga"

In my post from January 14 this year I presented several ship models built by Juan Ignacio Argaluza, who is an expert ship models craftman, what can be appreciated by looking at the pictures of his creations, although it´s not the same as seeing the actual models , in order to appreciate the extraordinary detail and accuracy of its components.

Lloyd's Register's 250th anniversary

Lloyd's Register is a ships classification society widely known in all marine shipping areas, which this year is celebrating its 250th anniversary, so I join the chorus of congratulations from the whole maritime family with my wishes they continue working for many years in their usual fields, and in those that technological progress will gradually be opening.

 

 

"Oliver Design" at Basque Television (Euskal Telebista)

Euskal Telebista (ETB), the Basque TV society, has issued on July 31 and August 1, within his channels ETB1 and ETB2, in Euskera and Spanish respectively, as a part of his Kresala program, a report about the ship design firm  "Oliver Design", of my friend and colleague Jaime Oliver.

"La Naval" from Sestao (Spain) launched the dredger "Charles Darwin"

Even with a bad weather a launching is always a cheerful event, it is a birth, a new vessel begins to live in her natural enviroment. This is what happened on Friday June 11, when the shipyard "La Naval" from Sestao (Spain), belonging to CNN group, made the launching of the suction dredger "Charles Darwin" for the Belgian company Jan de Nul, under an incessant rain that did not stop a moment during the launching and while having a drink afterwards at the  purposely fitted tent near the general offices.

Ships to install offshore wind generators

The European Union has plans to expand electric production by wind turbines up to 20 percent of total production in 2020, Spain being one of the leading countries in installed capacity of such generators located onshore.

Recently they have begun to install wind turbines at sea in areas up to 200 miles offshore and at not excessive depths, outstanding this kind of parks in North Sea countries. These "off-shore" generators solve some of the problems arising onshore, as noise, visual aesthetics, environmental opposition, and they get too a better use of wind power, which is greater at sea than onshore, and also allow for larger power / sizes, with better economic performance.

Merchant ships preliminary dimensioning

In the form that appears below the user indicates the type and size of a merchant ship whose main features wants to know and getting in response, a preliminary approximation of the same.

This estimate is based on statistical analysis and regressions (Ref.1) of ships dimensions, being actual ships or  designed projects, linking each of the characteristics of the ship with a single parameter describing her size ( deadweight, cargo volume, number of containers etc.). The resulting characteristics should therefore be considered as a first approximation only, which will give an idea of the characteristics of the new project or will serve as an initial basis for a more detailed definition by usual design procedures (Ref.2).

Estimating Ship's Gross Tonnage

On a past post I explained a simplified method to do an aproximate estimation of a ship's gross tonnage and an exact calculation of the compensated gross tonnage. Herein I enclose a simple input form to enter ship's main dimensions that produce results as explained in the mentioned past post.

Gross Tonnage GT, Compensated Gross Tonnage CGT

 

If you know the actual gross tonnage just input its value in the text box (cyan color), and click button "Calculate". If you don't know the actual gross tonnage, input ship's dimensions and click "Calculate"

Ship type  Bulk carrierOil tankerChemical tankerProduct tanker General cargo Coaster ReeferLPG carrier Container carrier

Gross Tonnage GT:
Length PP (m):
Breadth (m):
Depth (m):
Block coefficient:

Result GT

Result CGT

La Naval de Sestao entregó el buque Simon Stevin

Prototipo de buque tipo "Fall pipe"

Click for English versión

En mi nota  de 5 Abril 2009 en este blog informaba sobre la construcción en La Naval de Sestao del buque 'Simon Stevin', del tipo "fall pipe", cuya misión es doble, por una parte depositar ordenada y precisamente piedras en el fondo del mar para obras de protección de cables y tuberías submarinos y para construcciones en plataformas de perforación y obras marítimas en general, y por otra parte, extraer minerales del fondo marino.

En esta foto se ve este buque en el muelle de La Naval  días antes de su salida hacia el dique.

 

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