Committee Meeting –– 5 November 2024
The NSW Section Committee met on 5 November and, other than routine matters, discussed:
- SMIX Bash: Still requesting sponsors; bookings slow, but sometimes have a late rush; there are ways to trim the budget if necessary.
- TM Program 2025: Presentation secured for September, so we now have four RINA presentations filled; IMarEST have two of their five filled.
- Signatories to NSW Section Bank Account: Date and time for verification of additional signature to be decided.
- Australian Division Improvement Committee Workshop: NSW Committee members have other commitments on 29 November; non-members to be sought from NSW industry.
- Format for Future Technical Meetings: In-person attendances at recent technical meetings have been around six, well below the minimum for our caterer of 10. WA has recently had an in-person only meeting with much improved attendance. Decided to try (with IMarEST concurrence) holding the first few TMs in 2025 as in-person meetings with no streaming, but recording for placing on the web (usually within two weeks of the meeting), and then review.
- RINA Bi-Annual Branch Meeting: Committee member volunteered to attend on 18 or 25 November 2024.
The next meeting of the NSW Section Committee is scheduled for 11 February 2025.
Technical Presentation –– 2 October 2024
Allen Stotz, Torsten Lau, Eliah Cameron and Michael Reilly, Gibbs & Cox Australia, gave a presentation on Autonomous Surface Vessel Design Considerations to a joint meeting with the IMarEST on 2 October in the Henry Carmichael Theatre at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts in the Sydney CBD and streamed live. The presentation was attended by 11 with a further 16 participating online.
The Environmentally-powered Modular Autonomous Platform System (EMAPS) was designed around a set of fixed parameters. The design was limited by road safety limits associated with trailer width, length and maximum weight, and the ability to move two EMAPS stacked in a 20 ft high-cube ISO container. These design constraints and the need for stability, payload capacity and modularity, power regeneration, autonomous operation and the need to operate in shallow waters and inshore currents led to a number of design decisions which are reflected in the EMAPS prototype.
This presentation discussed the lessons learned during design, build and set-to-work of the EMAPS Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV). In particular, they discussed the design constraints, the lessons learned and applied in the first and second builds; design impacts recognised due to the nature of the EMAPS autonomous USV, such as trading off habitation space for payload, and power and control systems required for remote and autonomous operation. They also discussed the systems required to implement an autonomous system in a marine environment and the challenges involved.
The topics were covered as follows:
Allen Stotz: Overview
Torsten Lau EMAPS lessons identified as related to design constraints
Eliah Cameron Weight allocations and differences from crewed vessels
Michael Reilly Autonomous mechanisms and control systems
The presentation was recorded and is now available on the RINA YouTube channel.
The vote of thanks was proposed, and the “thank you” bottles of wine presented, by Steve Morant.
The Presenters
Allen Stotz has both BSc in mathematics and MBA degrees from St Mary’s University, and has worked for the Canadian Department of National Defence, Lockheed Martin, MDA Systems, and Irving Shipbuilding. He has been the Director, Maritime Autonomy, with Gibbs & Cox Australia since 2022. In this role he is responsible for maritime autonomous systems research and development, aligning with and supporting introduction of autonomous systems technology in Australia, development of the EMAPS autonomous surface vehicle, developing pre-production prototypes, developing production-ready product, participation in customer demonstrations and trials, and sales to defence and commercial end-users.
Torsten Lau is a naval architecture graduate of the Australian Maritime College, has been working in industry with Gibbs & Cox Australia since 2021 and is a naval architect on the EMAPS team. He has been responsible for the naval architecture platform design, performance predictions, procurement and set-to-work production activities in the EMAPS project, designing and building a 5.85 m environmentally-powered autonomous catamaran workboat.
Eliah Cameron is a naval architect who is new to the industry, graduating from the Australian Maritime College in 2023. After conducting an internship with Gibbs & Cox Australia between his third and fourth year of university, working on the early stages of the EMAPS project, he has now been employed and is working alongside Torsten and the autonomy team. He has been involved with the progression of the design and build of the EMAPS platform.
Michael Reilly is an electrical engineering graduate of the University of Newcastle and has been working in industry since 2017. Michael previously worked for Thales Australia as a lead electrical engineer for design changes on the naval Minehunter Program and has been working for Gibbs & Cox Australia since 2023 in the position of Senior Electrical Engineer in the EMAPS team. Michael has been responsible for electrical design, procurement and set-to-work as well as autonomy development on the EMAPS project.
(L to R) Adrian Broadbent, Allen Stotz, Eliah Cameron, Michael Reilly and Torsten Lau
(Photo courtesy Steve Morant)
Committee Meeting –– 10 September 2024
The NSW Section Committee met on 10 September and, other than routine matters, discussed:
- SMIX Bash: Organisation has been completed and everything is in place; however, we are still requesting sponsors.
- TM Program 2025: Program almost two-thirds complete with slots to fill by RINA in September and IMarEST in April, August and October.
- Signatories to Bank Account: One additional signature required for backup and is to be arranged.
- Members’ Contact Details: Spreadsheet of NSW Members contact details received from London has been set up on a Google drive and, since this is password protected, we have been advised by London that it meets the RINA requirements for Security of Membership Personal Data Issued to, and Held by Divisions, Sections, Branches and Joint Branches. This allows our Secretaries and Treasurer to access, and update, the spreadsheet in the one location.
This meeting goes down in history as the shortest-ever meeting of the NSW Section Committee at 17 min, beating the previous record by 1 min! For the statistically-minded, the longest-ever was 2 h 13 min on 5 February 2004.
Technical Presentation –– 4 September 2024
Ashar Khan, Manager New Builds Marine, Wärtsilä Australia, gave a presentation on Ship Electrification: A Viable Pathway for Decarbonisation to a joint meeting with the IMarEST on 4 September in the Henry Carmichael Theatre at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts in the Sydney CBD and streamed live. The presentation was attended by 8 with a further 7 participating online.
This presentation covered various electrification options available now, touch on reference cases, focussing in on the ferry segment, going through considerations for full-battery electric propulsion, discussing current available from lithium-ion battery technology, and considering safety aspects of the batteries.
The presentation was recorded and is now available on the RINA YouTube channel.
The vote of thanks was proposed, and the “thank you” bottle of wine presented, by Steve Morant.
The Presenter
Ashar Khan has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a post-graduate diploma in business management. He has 20 years of experience in the marine industry in various roles and in the South Asia, Middle East, and Oceania regions. His area of expertise is technical sales and developing tailor-made solutions in collaboration with the customers. Currently he’s responsible for New Build Projects in Australia and the Pacific, driving new concepts and solutions supporting decarbonisation.
Steve Morant (L) and Ashar Khan
(Photo courtesy Adrian Broadbent)
Technical Presentation –– 14 August 2024
Sean Langman, Managing Director, Noakes Group, and John Butler, Principal, John Butler Design, gave a presentation on Docking James Craig on the Floating Dock to a joint meeting with the IMarEST at the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, Point Piper, and streamed live on 14 August. The presentation was attended by 17 with a further 17 participating online.
Sean began the presentation, saying that James Craig is required by AMSA to have an out-of-water survey every five years. Her last docking was in the Captain Cook Dock (CCD) at Garden Island. However, for vessels like James Craig, Young Endeavour, et al., the CCD is overkill in size and expense, and not always available when required. The Sydney Heritage Fleet (SHF) therefore approached Noakes Group and asked whether they could dock James Craig on the floating dry dock (FDD), to which Noakes Group readily agreed [The background of the FDD and its restoration for Noakes by Harwood Marine at Yamba, NSW, is written up in the May 2018 issue of The ANA—Ed.] However, NSW Land and Environment specified that Noakes must have an environment protection licence for the docking operation, which meant doing it in Commonwealth waters, i.e. at Garden Island, Cockatoo Island, or Woolwich Dock. Sean was so keen that he contacted Thales and said that, if they could do the operation at Garden Island, then Noakes would do the docking for free! Thales agreed. Of course, to do the docking, they would need a docking plan and stability analysis.
The next hurdle was that, in order to minimise time alongside at Garden Island, they needed permission from the Environmental Protection Authority to move the floating dock from her mooring in Snails Bay to Noakes Yard in Berrys Bay so that they could set up the dock for James Craig. That licence cost them $4000 for three weeks. Noakes letterboxed their neighbours to advise them of what was happening. The EPA turned up to monitor the setup, and North Sydney Council did too and slapped an environment order on them which Sean is still fighting in court. Noakes then invited the neighbours on board to show them what they were doing. As well as the setup, they did some maintenance work on the dock. In order to do the setup, they had to have infrastructure on board, such as forklifts, etc, and this all had to be removed for the docking. They painted the dock floor and a yellow centreline on it (which Garden Island had never done). They also installed a plumb bob at the bow and stern of James Craig to align the vessel with this centreline. The wooden dock block caps were fastened down to the concrete bilge blocks with tie rods through a channel in the forklift holes in the concrete bases.
The FDD coming in to berth at Berrys Bay
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Setting up the keel blocks on the centreline of the FDD
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
John Butler then took up the story, saying that James Craig was undergoing refurbishment by the Sydney Heritage Fleet at the same time, with the aft mast off the vessel, along with the anchors and anchor chain. The jib boom was also retracted to reduce the overhang from James Craig and allow easier manouvring within Garden Island waters. The first step was to undertake a lightship measurement check so that they could determine the displacement and centre of gravity in the docking condition and the drafts of the vessel. They contacted Brad Lovegrove, Dockmaster at Garden Island, and he gave them a copy of the Thales docking plan for James Craig showing the configuration of the dock blocks in the CCD. The first challenge was to overlay this Thales setup with the structure in the FDD. The next one was that work was required to be undertaken on the rudder, necessitating removal of the rudder and stock. The easiest way to do that was to overhang the rudder and stock aft of the deck of the FDD. This meant that James Craig herself would be well aft of midships on the FDD, and so would require ballasting forward to maintain a level condition.
In a traditional dry dock, the dock blocks are level, and this can lead to a large sueing load if the vessel comes in to dock with a significant trim. However, a floating dry dock can be ballasted to suit the trim of the vessel being docked and minimise the sueing load. As a result of the lightship measurement check, calculations showed that James Craig in the docking condition would come in with a trim of 28 cm by the stern.
A cross section of the FDD and James Craig showed the centreline blocks and bilge blocks, as well as side shores built into the dock. They had to take account of possible overturning forces, including wind, dynamic, and transverse forces due to a possible heel angle. For a floating dry dock they don’t have to consider seismic forces, but they did take into account lateral accelerations due to vessel motion. The shores on each side of the vessel can take up to 20 t each. However, they did not want to place side loads on the hull of James Craig due to her age, and did not include the side shores in resisting the overturning moment, and relied solely on the bilge blocks.
Unlike for a traditional dry dock, the stability analysis for a floating dry dock is much more comprehensive, as it needs to consider the stability of each vessel separately and then combined at each stage of the docking. They set the FDD up for 23 cm of trim by the stern (i.e. up to 5 cm different to James Craig) and then considered five stages of the docking:
- FDD fully ballasted down to drafts for 23 cm trim;
- aft end of keel of James Craig landed and some mass on the dock blocks;
- half mass of James Craig on the dock blocks;
- water level at the level of the dock floor; and
- FDD fully unballasted.
John Butler Design compiled a report for the Department of Defence for approval before going ahead with the docking.
Sean then continued the story. For the docking, he decided that they needed a dockmaster (himself) to direct operations, and a pumpmaster to keep the heel and trim correct throughout. The FDD has its own power for pumping, lighting, etc., and the required backup would be provided by shore power from Garden Island. Before the FDD left the berth at Berrys Bay, they had set up Tirfors so that they could position James Craig exactly on the centreline of the FDD. The docking operation was done at the Cruiser Wharf (where the LHDs usually berth). The SHF provided their tugs Bronzewing and Currawong to keep the FDD a sufficient distance off the wharf while the docking was in progress so that the side shores in the open position did not foul the wharf. Docking down (they do not refer to “sinking”!) the FDD the first time took 8 h; however, they can now do it in 1.25 h. When the FDD was being refurbished at Yamba, they removed the cross-ship walkways from the ends, and the cranes from on top of the wingwalls, all of which significantly lowered the VCG. In total they removed 600 t, and so there is now a limit to the maximum draft which can be achieved with all ballast tanks full.
For the docking operation, it was critical to wait for night time for the ferries on Sydney Harbour to stop creating waves and wash. Undocking they could do in daylight. They had two divers in the water to check the positioning of the keel and bilges in relation to the dock blocks. The operation is most unstable when the deck of the FDD is just below the water surface.
James Craig entering the FDD at night
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Completing unflooding in daylight
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Jeames Craig docked down
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Aft overhang for removal of rudder
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
When they had James Craig docked, they were told that they had to move the FDD and James Craig away from the Cruiser Wharf. They had never done a previous cold move of the dock plus ship, so they were flying somewhat blind here! They provided additional sea lashing and tripod shores which were good for 3 t each. They were to move the dock plus ship from the Criser Wharf to the East Dock Wall of the CCD, i.e. in front of the Dock Office. For the cold move they used two Ausbarge tugs. What they didn’t realise until after the move was that their new mooring was in front of the discharge of the pumps which ran intermittently to keep the CCD dry and, of course, played havoc with the mooring of the FDD.
Tripod shores for sea lashing for cold move
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Outflow from the CCD pumps
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
The dock blocks have a concrete base, then hardwood blocks, plywood, softwood blocks and sacrificial softwood caps. The deck of the FDD is flat on the centreline, but the sides have camber; that’s great for drainage, but then the bilge blocks have to have the same camber to level them up.
Keel block
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Line of keel blocks
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Bilge block
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Brad Lovegrove (L) and Sean Langman
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
They consulted Brad Lovegrove about the operation, and his advice was that for vessels up to 1000 t, it was much easier and cheaper to dock them in the FDD than the CCD.Then they had another cold move back to where they started on the Cruiser Wharf. The undocking can be undertaken during the day, which occurred for James Craig at the Cruiser Wharf, following the cold move. Rollers on the corners of the FDD fendered the vessel as it was removed from the dock.
Undocking
(Photo courtesy Sean Langman)
Since the docking of James Craig, they have done two more dockings on the FDD at Garden Island, one for Young Endeavour, and one for a USV (unmanned surface vessel) for the US Navy. The State Government currently needs to dock the Freshwater-class ferries, and needs local government and EPA approvals. The FDD is clearly needed for vessels up to 1000 t. And the FDD herself is coming up for a five-year survey and, for that, she will go to Harwood Marine at Yamba.
The presentation was not recorded.
The vote of thanks was proposed, and the “thank you” bottles of wine presented, by John Jeremy. The vote was carried with acclamation.
The Presenters
Sean Langman is the owner and Managing Director of Noakes Group, Australia’s leading general marine company, with shipyards at North Sydney, and Port Huon in Tasmania. Sean has spent his life around boats and, starting out as a rigger, has sailed all manner of boats from 49er dinghies to piloting Wot Rocket for an attempt on the World Sailing Speed Record. He is one of the country’s most-recognised yachtsmen and has competed in 32 Rolex Sydney–Hobart Yacht Races. His Team Australia ORMA 60 crew holds the record for the fastest passage times from Sydney to Hobart and Sydney to Auckland. Sean can often be seen on the water as master of one of the Rosman ferries, at the helm of the Noakes-sponsored 18 ft skiff, racing his Ranger 24, Vagrant, on Sydney Harbour, or sailing Maluka to two wins in her class in the Sydney–Hobart and a win in her class in the 2023 Fastnet Race in the UK.
John Butler is a naval architect and AMSA-accredited marine surveyor. Completing his naval architecture degree at the Australian Maritime College in 2001, John went on to work for Ocean Innovations, Incat Designs and Burness Corlett Three Quays before starting his own business, John Butler Design, in 2014. John Butler Design works in the Defence, cruise ship and commercial vessel survey industries, specialising in stability, plan approval, machinery and structural design aspects of new and existing vessels. John Butler Design also values the heritage aspect of the marine industry, assisting Sydney Heritage Fleet with the ongoing restoration of their vessels John Oxley and Kanangra, including the stability analysis during the dock-swap of the two vessels. John Butler Design recognises the importance of additional docking facilities within the Sydney area and has worked closely with Noakes Group to re-attain accreditation of their Floating Dry Dock for Defence and Commercial use.
(L to R) John Butler, John Jeremy and Sean Langman
(Photo Phil Helmore)
