The one curse of our business is that most of our work is fire and forget. The job shows up, it is done and then we move on to the next job. With ships this is particularly common, in one way or another we are involved in the construction of a ship, it is built,… Read more »
M&O has designed many load outs and complex lifts on salvage and construction jobs, and has provided warranty surveys on complex lifts and load outs. The International Cargo Gear Bureau (ICGB) was founded in 1954 and is a US Government designated not-for-profit organization providing surveying, testing, and certification services for maritime and land-based lifting equipment…. Read more »
On 9 April 1958, the MS “Kerkedyk” left Rotterdam on her maiden voyage to New York. Henk van Hemmen was aboard as an assistant engineer. A few days into the voyage a strange vibe started on the ship, and a while later an announcement was made to the crew that their vessel would divert to… Read more »
The print run of our company history arrived at the office last week. It looks great and has been a fun and interesting project. Historian Rick Geffken did a dive into the company’s early history and unearthed lots of interesting early details, too much to publish in the book. We also did not want to… Read more »
I remember first seeing an Alcyone II when I was quite young. We were cruising Dutch canals in my Grandfather’s boat. It had this peculiar tan yellow color and looked like something from a different age and then again not. It flew a large American flag and appeared to be quite new. It struck me… Read more »
Well, it’s done. Time for a long vacation with chaise lounges and drinks with umbrellas. SL7Expo now has its logo. In my life, I’ve been through at least eight logo designs for various ventures. Every time, I’m reminded: logo design and organization name selection is hard work. First, a new venture needs a name. The… Read more »
This year is the 150th anniversary of the founding of Martin & Ottaway. We are in the middle of writing a company history, and we thought that towards the end of the book a picture of our present staff would be appropriate. On September 8, we almost succeeded in getting everybody in the same place… Read more »
With Martin & Ottaway celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, we are bonding with other local players in the same age group. One player is just two years older than Martin & Ottaway and continues to be as relevant today as it was back in the 1873. In its quiet and persistent way, The… Read more »
Martin & Ottaway is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. While maritime technology changed a lot in that period, it still relies on foundational truths. For example, maritime continues to be a very capital intensive industry. The returns on investment are often assumed to take a decade, and with cyclical ups and down, can easily… Read more »
This story is about 12M design, but it starts with a simple recent strength discussion. We were looking into the strength of a bollard and lifted some bollard moment strength versus bollard diameter data from the US Navy Towing manual. To help the discussion, one of our engineers prepared a little spreadsheet and added… Read more »
During the 2003 Gulf War there was a desperate search for biological and chemical weapons, and other stored military equipment. Soon there were press conferences where military PR officers were talking about finding weapons caches. But from day one they pronounced it as cashays (ca·chet, /kaˈSHā/) That meant they were looking for fashionable weapons, or… Read more »
I have a soft goal of exploring all the New York harbor navigable creeks and water ways. This weekend I decided to try the Raritan River. The Raritan, Passaic and Hackensack are sort of the poster rivers for industrial pollution and decay, and somehow it seemed like a daunting, but challenging expedition. This weekend the… Read more »
Doing is learning, and I learned when I had the pleasure of doing some shore side support for the Apollonia effort. Apollonia continues to move cargo by sail between Albany and the Port of New Jersey/New York and points in between. Occasionally Apollonia loads coffee cargo at Carteret, New Jersey. Carteret is a very interesting… Read more »
It is a pleasure to introduce Capt. Murat Kilic as a member of the M&O consultant team. I first met Murat as a client on the construction of two high speed catamarans in Sicily for the Oman National Ferries Corporation. At that time, he was the fleet manager and there were some construction issues… Read more »
The Aberration experiment continues, and I am making almost continuous modifications to Aberration based on operational experience and the availability of new technologies. When I ran the boat to its winter storage at Scarano Boatyard in Albany, the standby diesel generator was smoking a little and this spring I suppose I will have to… Read more »
Solar Hybrid Electric Wheelchair Accessible Catamaran (SHEWAC) Aberration has been the subject of discussion on a number of Martin & Ottaway blogs, and also has received some attention in the press. This is the subject landing page for this vessel that chronicles the design, construction, operational experience and upgrades to the vessel. 1. … Read more »
Hudson River Maritime Museum has a great blog that regularly puts out interesting Hudson River historical tidbits. One of those blogs had a story about World War I subchasers. It provided some drawings for the vessel, but Wikipedia provided an even more complete drawing with a lines plan. They have the following particulars:… Read more »
As I write this there are dozens, if not hundreds, of carbon emissions reduction efforts underway, or being suggested. Some can only be described as bogus, while others appear to have a positive impact, but in the big picture do not appear to make the difference that we really need. The present global warming data… Read more »
In an earlier blog I referred to the Lelievlet; the standard boat for Dutch Sea Scouts. It is a clever design that has allowed thousands of kids to get a solid taste of life on the water. The first Lelievlet was built in steel in 1955 and since that time over 1600 steel lelievletten have… Read more »
My grandfather was planning to retire as a ship’s Chief Engineer in 1964. He and his wife had mused about getting a boat to cruise the Dutch waterways. That vision was adopted by the extended family and resulted in this design. As a yacht designer I have occasionally shot myself in the foot by telling… Read more »
Maritime transportation takes advantage of huge economies of scale, but it was not always that way. Even quite recently there were many maritime ventures in the United States that operated on quite a small scale and in certain places in the world maritime transportation still takes place on very small scales down to the canoe… Read more »
In a 2017 blog we provided some examples of the work that our friends at Horizon Naval Architects have been doing. Time has marched on, and 5 years later there is now even more sophisticated technology. Quite near our office Greg Gomes of Skyvue is plying his trade as a remote control aircraft specialist, drone… Read more »
Warning! Reading this Column May Result in EDS Infection. My father was on the new construction team of the 1958 SS Rotterdam V, a visually iconic passenger liner that is presently a static hotel and event space in Rotterdam Harbor. When she entered service, her looks were much discussed, and generally compared to her very… Read more »
The combination of containers stowed on deck and containers stowed in holds inherently results in a container securing conundrum. Containers stowed on deck sit on hatch covers, and the covers needs to be larger than the size of the hatch that fits the containers. That means that it is not possible to fit a fixed… Read more »
We have been involved in quite a number of lost container cases in the last few years, especially on large (12,000 TEU plus) container vessels. Some of these cases show various deficiencies, but in other cases it appears that the lashings simply are not strong enough for normal vessel operations. That has led us down… Read more »
Many years ago, before I left high school, I read a book about a famous Dutch ocean sailor who was asked what his preferred size for a safe ocean crossing sailboat was and, without hesitation, he responded 44 feet. I worked as a yacht designer and found time and time again that 44 feet is… Read more »
Note: This article was first published in the November 2021 issue of Maritime Reporter and Engineering News. As naval architects and marine engineers we are familiar with the design spiral. While design is not truly a spiral, we use the concept to remind ourselves that all pieces of a ship design interact. The design spiral… Read more »
The National Transportation Safety Board issued their report on the Golden Ray capsize and, as is usually the case with those reports, it provides an interesting read. The NTSB provides a cause for the incident, incorrect stability calculation, and provides the following recommendations to the vessel operator: 1. Revise your safety management system to… Read more »
For an overall discussion of this design go to: SHEWAC Aberration Since my blog on Aberration in October last year, the concept has come to life and is now operating to a level where I can ponder my brilliance (right) and mistakes. As a designer it is particularly interesting and cathartic to find yourself on… Read more »
Since we updated our website with a blog function in 2011, I more or less committed myself to posting a blog each month. Somehow, I more or less stuck with that commitment, but I just noticed that we did not post a new blog for January 2021. I also noticed that this happens to be… Read more »
The 29-day voyage of the “Grain de Sail” from Saint Malo, France to New York, New York, completed on December 16, 2020, was not publicized in the New York Times, USA Today, or any other big-name tabloids. Its cargo of about 14,000 bottles of wine has yet to hit the menus of New York restaurants… Read more »
For an overall discussion of this design go to: SHEWAC Aberration Due to the fact that my wife became wheelchair bound recently, I am in the middle of the design and construction of a 35 foot hybrid propulsion wheelchair friendly catamaran. Together with the boat design and construction masters of Scarano boats, I am converting… Read more »
The Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2004 has sent uncertainty as well as additional audit and survey demands across the towing industry. Even with a compliance date “phase-in period,” companies are scrambling to meet federal regulations enforced by the U. S. Coast Guard. As a result, companies are concerned as to whether they… Read more »
While Martin & Ottaway has always worked very closely with the United States Coast Guard, we have never had a Martin & Ottaway consultant with a United States Coast Guard background. There was never a specific reason for that, except to note that possibly the right mutual opportunity never presented itself. However, today, it gives… Read more »
Martin & Ottaway has been performing ship appraisals since its formation in 1875. Our records go back to the late 1800’s and we have hung onto our historic records through all our office moves. A lot of our actual project work has now been digitized which is a huge space saver, but other paper records… Read more »
Mathematically, worldwide sustainable energy is a real possibility, but it will require a very significant change in thinking, attitudes, efforts, and financial commitments to accomplish. All over the world we are encountering experiments, trials, and even significant changes in human attitudes, but, so far, we cannot point at an integrated success story of societal change…. Read more »
If there is a marine explosion, chances are Martin & Ottaway gets a call. An explosion investigation is hard work and requires a huge amount of data collection. It can be an exhausting and often confusing task. Today there are great tools to quickly build a model, but even with the best tools (drones, laser… Read more »
That’s me in the yellow foul weather gear. Twenty years ago I was standing on this beach. I was working as a Salvage Naval Architect for SMIT, and we had just connected the tow wire to the tug offshore. It was a crazy project that I think of very fondly. Undoubtedly it was the… Read more »
I have always had an odd fascination with Chrysler. The whole story is too long to get into, but it relates to my Mother first seeing value in Chrysler stock and timing the ups and downs like Paganini on a violin, and my days at Chrysler’s Highland Parks Tech Center working with Chrysler engineers on… Read more »
I joined the industry in 1981 and, before that, remember playing with the tarballs on the Dutch Northsea beaches. Things don’t always get better, but as far as international shipping is concerned, boy, have things improved. A huge portion of the credit goes to all the hardworking mariners who notice things that are wrong, and then come together… Read more »
On May 29, 2018, David Tantrum provided a Lunch & Learn presentation to one of the marine industry leading insurance companies, Starr Marine. The presentation covered vessel valuation methodologies and included topics such as un-repaired damage claims, unique vessel appraisals, and U.S. versus foreign flag vessel construction costs to name but a few. The Lunch… Read more »
It is a pleasure to introduce Capt. Leonard Pucci as a member of the M&O consultant team. I have known Lenny for many years, and worked with him on quite a number of projects. Besides providing our standard basket of services (particularly in the Rhode Island area, where he will be based), Lenny’s area of… Read more »
A week or so ago, for a minute, Lenny Pucci and I were thinking about jointly owning a sailboat. That immediately raised the next question: Well, what kind of sailboat? I did not hesitate, and immediately suggested a Freedom 44. To me it is one of the most useful sailboats out there. Fortunately, our boat… Read more »
I have been making these lists since 2012, and so I feel compelled to add another one this year. Maybe I have not been paying attention as closely as usual, but somehow I did not see as many milestones as prior years. This should not be interpreted as gloom and doom. I just think that… Read more »
A few weeks ago we surveyed the No.4 Union Drydock for purchase by Bayonne Drydock. The deal was consummated, and now the No. 4 drydock is in Bayonne. By now most of Union Drydock in Hoboken has been liquidated. We are sorry to see this 100 year old company go, but, on the positive side,… Read more »
I try to attend the SNAME annual meetings every year. Mustering the energy to attend can be daunting, but once I am there, I realize that there are so many benefits to attending the annual meeting that the cost and time are well worth it. At every meeting I try to attend as many technical paper presentations… Read more »
My wife posted this picture on my Facebook page. I copy it here because the picture made me think, and that led me right into a patent and copyright approach that I have been toying with for a number of years. First of all, I could not figure out where the picture came from (who owns it), but… Read more »
In a recent blog, I discussed laser scanning as a surveying tool. That made me think of all the tools that surveyors carry in their proverbial tool bag today. Surveying equipment used to be pretty simple when Francis A. Martin did his thing in 1875. We still use Francis A. Martin’s stuff, although often in… Read more »
When I joined Martin & Ottaway, Harry Ottaway told me that Francis Martin used a horse and carriage to be dropped off at the various surveys. Roy Kanapaux, a surveyor that still worked with Martin & Ottaway in the early eighties (at age 80!) and whom I met when I visited my father at the… Read more »
During our MAX1 study effort we focused on optimal environmental operational practices, but after we issued our MAX1 final report, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation asked us to perform a follow-up study that focused more tightly on operating costs. In the initial effort we avoided this task, because we felt that it would be near impossible… Read more »