January 2005
Table of Contents:

Chesapeake

Philadelphia

Greek

Northern California

Chesapeake Section
by Bill Peters and Chris Barry

November 15, 2004

Attendees of the November 15, 2004 meeting of the Chesapeake Section enjoyed a lively technical presentation and discussion on inclining experiments as well as a new venue. Held at the Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis, this new location enabled some members to attend who otherwise would not including five midshipmen and two professors from the Naval Academy. Of course, the key reason for about 50 members to attend was the technical subject, which was “Tips, Tricks, and Trips in Inclining Experiments.” This presentation’s goal was unusual since it was intended as the beginning of a study to produce guidelines for practical aspects of inclining experiments instead of a presentation of the results of a concluded study. Led by presentations by Chris Barry and John Womack, a panel consisting of George Borlase, Tom Waters, Bill Boze, and William Fox, led a wide ranging audience discussion on inclining experiments. Topics ranged from ways to prepare the vessel tankage to whether or not the owner or the naval architect conducting the inclining should provide lunch. Several members of the audience including Joe Koebel, Gordon Piché, Charles Coad, Charles Neville, and Robert Vom Saal shared their “war stories” about inclinings. The panel format of the technical session succeeded in maximizing audience participation.

The relative accuracy of draft marks versus freeboard measurements was a significant topic, as was determining when moving a large weight to intermediate positions was preferable to moving a number of smaller weights all the way across the deck. George Borlase and Tom Waters discussed common errors in reducing inclining experiment data that have caused problems in getting the associated reports approved by the Coast Guard, and Bill Boze and William Fox discussed aspects of inclining very large (naval) vessels. To round out the discussion regarding vessel size, John Womack presented a short discussion with extensive photos showing the special aspects of inclining fishing vessels and small passenger vessels, and Chris Barry talked about inclining small craft in air. Bill Boze, John Womack and William Fox also showed the group a collection of devices and special tools they use for making the experiment easier and more accurate. Finally, the matter of safety was discussed, noting that an inclining experiment involves the potential for placing people in hazardous locations, and that even engineers need to follow the rules.

John Womack discusses pros and cons of using water levels versus pendulums.

People who are interested in stability issues, especially participating in the discussion on inclining experiments and development of guidelines under the auspices of the SNAME Stability Panel SD-3 are invited to contact Chris at cbarry@elcbalt.uscg.mil for further information.

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Philadelphia Section
by David Moorhead

November 17, 2004

The November meeting of the Philadelphia Section was held on Wednesday, November 17, 2004. The meeting was a joint presentation with ASNE, hosted by SNAME. Our honored guest was SNAME President Bruce Rosenblatt.

The presentation was made by Paul Lemmo, Director of Business Development for the Littoral Ships & Systems (LS&S) Line of Business within Lockheed Martin’s MS2 business. He is responsible for all new business development, Government relations and Congressional Liaison activities for all aspects of the LS&S line of business, including the Littoral Combat Ship Program (SeaFrame, Mission Modules, and International opportunities).

Paul discussed the status of the LCS program and the Lockheed Martin LCS Team design. LCS, a revolutionary naval combatant designed to dominate the world's coastal waters, which provides the Navy with fast, maneuverable and shallow draft ships aimed at maximizing mission flexibility. The ship's first missions will include mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare. The project is for development of the ship (or SeaFrame) and does not include development of the mission packages. However, it does require the ability to mount various mission packages as defined by the Navy.

The Lockheed Martin team was awarded a contract for final design in May, with options for up to two Flight 0, or initial production, ships. The Lockheed Martin team is one of two in the final phase of the development competition. Lockheed Martin is scheduled to begin construction of the lead ship at Marinette Marine in Marinette, WI, in the first quarter of 2005. The Lockheed Martin-led team includes the naval architectural firm of Gibbs & Cox and ship builders, Marinette Marine and Bollinger Shipyards. The team designed a low-risk, affordable solution that provides the Navy with a maneuverable, flexible, networked surface combatant.

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Greek Section
by Spiros Malliaroudakis

November 24, 2004

On November 24, 2004, the second technical meeting of the Greek Section’s 2004-2005 season was held in the presence of about 50 members and students. Capt. Alexander Carcantzos of the Hellenic Coast Guard, and Chairman of the sub-committee on Stability, Load Lines and Fishing vessels Safety (SLF) of IMO, presented his paper on ‘Goal-Based Ship Construction standards’.

The author presented a proposal by Greece, the Bahamas and IACS, which had been submitted to the Marine Safety Committee of IMO to develop and adopt basic goal-based standards for the construction and outfitting of ships. One main reason for this proposal was the trend that had evolved in the last few decades to optimize ship designs by minimizing their scantlings using finite element methods, which resulted in many cases of failure.

The proposal included the framework for the development of the standards, consisting of the development of the overall safety objectives, the associated functional requirements and the criteria for the verification of compliance. Furthermore, it was pointed out that prescriptive rules, guidelines and industry standards as well as codes and quality systems for shipbuilding, ship operation, maintenance, etc should be developed, mainly outside IMO. This new proposal was unanimously accepted by the Committee as the basis for the future development and adoption of standards.

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Northern California Section
by Tom Mader

December 9 , 2004

The Northern California Section met with the Golden Gate Section of ASNE in December. Thirty-one members of the professional societies and nine students from the University of California, Berkeley and California Maritime Academy were in attendance to enjoy the waterfront setting and hospitality of the Encinial Yacht Club, Alameda, CA.

Mr. Lars Ronning, ConocoPhillips Marine, USA, presented a comprehensive overview of the LNG market in the United States, its supply chain from production through delivery and recent developments in offshore terminals. A new generation of LNG ships was described, including their capacity, general arrangement, cargo containment and reliquefaction systems, and propulsion prime movers. The global shipyard capacity for producing LNG carriers was also discussed.

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