THE AUSTRALIAN NAVAL ARCHITECT Volume 19 Number 3 August 2015 NUSHIP Adelaide rounding Bradleys Head on her first visit to Sydney on 26 June 2015 (RAN photograph) THE AUSTRALIAN NAVAL ARCHITECT Journal of The Royal Institution of Naval Architects (Australian Division) Volume 19 Number 3 August 2015 Cover Photo: CONTENTS The 39 m passenger ferry Kilamanjaro V, re- 2 From the Division President cently completed by Richardson Devine Marine Constructions in Tasmania for Azam Marine of 2 Editorial Tanzania 3 Letter to the Editor (Photo courtesy Incat Crowther) 4 News from the Sections The Australian Naval Architect is published four times per year. All correspondence and advertising copy should be 13 Coming Events sent to: 18 Classification Society News The Editor The Australian Naval Architect 19 General News c/o RINA 32 The Flexible Multi-role Warship — PO Box No. 462 Jamison Centre, ACT 2614 John Jeremy AUSTRALIA 40 Operational Risk Profiling — Jesse Millar email: [email protected] The deadline for the next edition of The Australian Na- 41 Education News val Architect (Vol. 19 No. 4, November 2015) is Friday 46 The Profession 30 October 2015. Articles and reports published in The Australian Naval 48 From the Crows Nest Architect reflect the views of the individuals who prepared them and, unless indicated expressly in the text, do not neces- 49 Industry News sarily represent the views of the Institution. The Institution, 52 Vale its officers and members make no representation or warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or 55 Membership correctness of information in articles or reports and accept no responsibility for any loss, damage or other liability 57 The Internet arising from any use of this publication or the information 58 Naval Architects on the Move which it contains. 59 From the Archives The Australian Naval Architect ISSN 1441-0125 © Royal Institution of Naval Architects 2015 Editor in Chief: John Jeremy AM RINA Australian Division Technical Editor: Phil Helmore on the Print Post Approved PP 606811/00009 World Wide Web Printed by B E E Printmail Telephone (02) 9437 6917 www.rina.org.uk/aust August 2015 1 From the Division President Editorial For those members involved in naval shipbuilding these The recent announcement by the Prime Minister that the are interesting times, with the Prime Minister announcing Government will implement a continuous program of during his recent visit to Adelaide that all future surface building naval surface ships in Australia will be welcomed naval warships will be built in South Australia, and by all of us who have been pressing for such a plan for that certain proposed naval projects would be brought decades. Whilst the plan will not completely overcome the forward. Presumably this is the Government’s response fast-approaching trough in the naval shipbuilding industry’s to the difficulties reported by several of the Australian workload, the outlook for future years should be much organisations involved in shipbuilding, including our improved, provided the plan is followed through into action. Division, that skills could not be maintained when there was The Prime Minister stated that this is the first time that no overall planning for naval contracts, and which ultimately an Australian government had made such a commitment. would lead to the so-called “Valley-of-Death” when there That is not really correct. The decision by the Australian were no contracts and no employment prospects. government of 1946 to order the Daring-class destroyers I believe that the Government initiative is to be applauded, was, in part, intended to maintain naval shipbuilding skills, as it suggests to me that the ups-and-downs of commercial and the program of ship construction which followed lasted work at the shipyards might to some extent be levelled out, for 20 years. and that a single centre of shipbuilding knowledge and skills The ships built then proved to be costly and planned delivery might more easily be maintained in the one place, rather dates were not met — the reasons for this were complex. than scattered amongst various states and cities throughout It was a period of rapid increases in the cost of labour and Australia, as it is at present. The initiative does not suggest material. The designs chosen were at an early stage of that one company is favoured over any other; rather it development when the cost estimates were made, the RAN suggests that if you want to tender for naval shipbuilding, was keen to incorporate the latest technology as it became then you have to launch the complete product in South available and changes were constant, and the contract bases Australia. did not encourage the Navy or the shipbuilders to manage We can probably now expect various corporate alignments the projects to deliver to a time and at a cost. Nevertheless, so that companies involved in surface naval shipbuilding some fine ships were built and high-quality skills were can claim some connection to South Australia. retained, only to be squandered in the 1970s as we tried to Elsewhere, your Division Council is currently investigating do things a different way. various future potential activities, with the aim of We can do better today, particularly if we are prepared to streamlining the work of the Council and to raise the profile study the experience of the past and learn from it. Whilst of the Division. It is in the public interest that RINA members some may decry the Government’s plan as ‘industry welfare’ are seen as the authority of choice on matters relating to ship, and the commitment to South Australia as political ‘pork boat and offshore design and production, but it is a difficult barrelling’, naval shipbuilding is a strategic industry and task when anyone can call themselves a ship designer. similar challenges are faced and commitments made in Travel safely. many countries, including those with much larger defence order books than ours. Tony Armstrong John Jeremy HMAS Stuart in wintry seas off Sydney in July (RAN photograph) The Australian Naval Architect 2 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir, the expense of installing a pipeline. Furthermore, once the In a world which demands high energy production, many field is depleted, the FPSO can be moved to a new location. innovative creations have come to life to fulfil our needs. I The first oil FPSO was Shell Castellon, built in Spain in 1977 would like to draw your attention to the traditional energy and, today, there are around 200 vessels deployed. A majority source, oil, and its off-shore production and storage by the of FPSOs entering the market in the next five years will floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit. head for the ultra-deep waters (defined as waters of depth This is a vessel of large dimensions capable of producing, greater than 1 500 m) of Brazil, West Africa and the Gulf of processing and storing oil and natural gas, once anchored Mexico. Offshore Brazil is home to the largest number of in a defined location. FPSOs in service and on order worldwide, accounting for The search for oil brought mining companies to face the sea, approximately 27%. not only with extensive wells of oil and gas, but also with FPSOs are quicker than fixed platforms to develop and challenges involving drilling, processing and transporting in construct and, in many cases, they recycle ship-shaped a harsh environment. Oil has been produced from offshore hulls, reducing new-construction efforts. They are mobile locations since the late 1940s. Originally, all oil platforms and less costly to abandon at the end of the field’s producing sat on the sea bed but, as exploration moved to deeper life. The great number of FPSOs in operation and on order waters and more-distant locations in the 1970s, floating speaks volumes for the solution’s versatility, technology, production systems came to be used. The FPSO eliminates and unprecedented safety. the need to lay expensive, long-distance pipelines from Thales Lobato the processing facility to an onshore terminal. This can be UNSW student an economically-attractive solution for smaller oil fields which can be exhausted in a few years and cannot justify Cape Wessel, seen here at her launching, was delivered to the Australian Border Force in July. The eighth and final ship to be built under Austal’s $300 million design, build and support contract will be delivered later this year in accordance with the contract (Photo courtesy Austal) August 2015 3 NEWS FROM THE SECTIONS Victoria • SMIX Bash 2015: Sponsors are being sought. Ship Bio-fouling Management • Technical Meeting Program: Presentation for August re-arranged, and ideas for 2016 presentations canvassed. John Lewis of ES Link Services gave a presentation on Ship Date for October presentation coincides with Pacific Bio-fouling Management — Latest Developments to a joint 2015 International Maritime Conference events and this meeting with the IMarEST attended by eighteen on 18 June presentation has therefore been cancelled. in the Auditorium at Jacobs, 452 Flinders St, Melbourne. The next meeting of the NSW Section Committee is Bio-fouling on hulls has always impacted on ship scheduled for 10 September. performance and maintenance, but now also raises environmental concerns through its effect on vessel energy Aluminium Ship Structures Research efficiency and movement of invasive marine species. Teresa Magoga of the Defence Science and Technology IMarEST has established a Special Interest Group (SIG) Organisation (DSTO) gave a presentation on Aluminium Ship on bio-fouling management to enable communication and Structures Research: The Armidale Class Patrol Boats to a discussion on developing issues, and this talk provided an joint meeting with the IMarEST attended by forty-two on overview of this SIG and its activity.