NSW Section - News

Reports of Section meetings and activities, articles of interest to Section members. Members proposing articles for inclusion in the Section News page should contact the Hon Secretary.

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Technical Meeting -- 5 October 2011

Noel Riley, Principal of Commercial Marine Design, gave a presentation on Developing the Hullforms of Yesterday’s Timber Vessels to a joint meeting with the IMarEST attended by 21 on 5 October in the Harricks Auditorium at Engineers Australia, Chatswood.

Noel’s presentation in the November 2011 issue of The Australian Naval Architect.

The vote of thanks was proposed, and the “thank you” bottle of wine presented, by Phil Helmore. The vote was carried with acclamation.

Section Committee Meeting -- 21 September 2011

The NSW Section Committee met on 21 September and, other than routine matters, discussed:

NSCV Section C1Arrangement, Accommodation and Personal Safety: The Reference Group for this final section of the NSCV met a total of seven times, with the final one being on 31 August. John Fladun is now the CEO of NMSC’s functions in Canberra under AMSA, and the Sydney office is closing.
SMIX Bash 2011: Further sponsors are being sought for this year’s event to cover projected costs; credit-card facilities are again available and registrations have opened, but are away to a slow start this year.
Database of Consulting Naval Architects: The country search facility is up and running on the RINA database of consultant members, and a short email reminder has been prepared.
Technical Meting Program 2012: Topics for presentations in 2012 were proposed and a number of authors will be approached.

Technical Meeting -- 7 September 2011

Fraser Johnson, Renewal Energy Manager for Oceanlinx Ltd, gave a presentation on Marine Renewables Mooring Design for Wave-energy Systems to a joint meeting with the IMarEST attended by 18 on 7 September in the Harricks Auditorium at Engineers Australia, Chatswood.

Introduction

Fraser began his presentation by saying that, while he has been in Australia with Oceanlinx for a year, he has been involved with renewable energies since 1999 and, before that, in the merchant navy. Renewable energy has gone from an idea to an industry, and some companies have invested $100 million in putting kit into the water.

How do wave-energy systems work? There are various types, and here Fraser showed a slide of the principal methods used. These include:

Pressure and/or surge motion types, e.g. oscillating water columns.
Low-head hydrodynamic types which operate on wave overtopping to fill a holding tank and use the outflow.
Hydraulic types which use pitch, heave, pitch/surge or pitch/yaw motions.

Oceanlinx have used oscillating water column (OWC) types at Port Kembla since 1997. The initial Mk 1 500 kW system has now been decommissioned, and replaced by the Mk 2 1.5 MW system in 2005 and then, in 2010, the Mk 3, a cluster of eight chambers in a space-frame structure which validated the output of their blueWAVE commercial package at 2.5 MW. Wavejet in northern Scotland have also operated a 100 kW OWC for six years.

Point-absorbers operating on heave motions include those by Ocean Power Technologies and Carnegie. Installations have included a 40 kW system in Spain, and a 150 kW system in the Orkneys. These types are suitable for putting in farms.

Attenuator types operating on pitch and yaw motions, such as that of ocean Power Delivery, have been installed on a test project in the Orkneys and then in an application in Portugal, but there has been little further development.

The surging type has been adopted by Aquamarine Power using a hinged flap on the sea bed in 810 m of water and has been deployed in the Orkneys to generate 820 kW. Langlee Wave Power has also used this type with four articulated flaps, but in a floating structure.

Annual General Meeting -- 2 March 2011

The NSW Section held its 13th AGM on the evening of 2 March, following the March technical presentation in the Harricks Auditorium at Engineers Australia, Chatswood, attended by five with Phil Helmore in the chair.

Technical Meeting -- 2 March 2011

Tim Holt, Country Manager Maritime for Det Norske Veritas, gave a presentation on QuantumA Containership for the Future to a joint meeting with the IMarEST attended by fourteen on 2 March in the Harricks Auditorium at Engineers Australia, Chatswood.
Tim’s presentation was recorded for webcast by Engineers Australia and is available for viewing online at www.mediavisionz.com.au/ea_flash/syd/2011/110302-easyd/index.htm

This was the inaugural webcast recording for RINA and IMarEST in Australia and, as it costs to make the recordings, your comments on the value of the recording are requested. Please send comments to the NSW Technical Meeting Program Coordinator at .

Section Committee Meeting -- 23 March 2011

The NSW Section Committee met on 23March and, other than routine matters, discussed:
• SMIX Bash 2010: The accounts are close to finalisation, although four sponsorships have yet to be finalised. Projections are for a small surplus which will provide seed funding for SMIX Bash 2011.

Technical Meeting -- 30 March 2011

John Jeremy, the last General Manager of Vickers Cockatoo Dockyard, gave a presentation One Hundred Years of Destroyers in the Royal Australian Navy to a joint meeting with the IMarEST attended by twenty-six on 30 March in the Harricks Auditorium at Engineers Australia, Chatswood.

Technical Meeting -- 20 April 2011

Mori Flapan, Principal Technical Adviser to National Marine Safety Committee, gave a presentation on The Draft NSCV Standard C1 on Arrangement, Accommodation and Personal Safety to a joint meeting with the IMarEST attended by fourteen on 20 April in the Conference Room at Lloyd’s Register Asia, 44 Market St, Sydney.

Technical Meeting -- 4 May 2011

John Willy, Commander, Royal Australian Naval Reserve and Regional Operations Manager Australia, Orient Overseas Container Line, gave a presentation Counter-piracy Operations in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Somali Basin to a joint meeting with the IMarEST attended by twenty-nine on 4 May in the Harricks Auditorium at Engineers Australia, Chatswood.