GPA: Engineering Ideas Into Reality…
The motto at Guido Perla & Associates, Inc. (GPA) for over thirty years and continuing to this day has always been: Engineering Ideas into Reality. For clients worldwide, no matter how large or small the project, from single vessels to an unprecedented number of vessels in one series, the adage rings true. Behind the company’s success and commitment to each and every client is a team of over 70 professionals on four continents, led by the company’s Chairman Guido Perla and supported by his management team.
Melding The Old With The New
It's a timeless piece of history that is the newest deal going on in the cruise ship industry - the deal between the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. and Atlantic Marine, which calls for the building of two U.S. Coastal flag ships inspired by the former Fall River Line Vessels which ran from 1847 to 1937. It was the age in which water transportation was the only mode of distance travel. Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers had not yet become household names and the horse and carriage reigned as the only means of getting to and fro. Aristocracy held court on ships that sailed the high seas - namely the Fall River Line, which ran from New York to New England. Inspired yet? Executives at Delta Queen were - so much that they decided to model their current project after the famed line.
Sideways to Swimmers: Unusual Tank Testing
Offshore supply vessels, passenger vessels, yachts. How much power is required and how will they ride in seas? These are the questions Gerry Stensgaard, P.Eng, and the staff at the Ocean Engineering Centre (OEC) of Vizon Scitec (formerly BC Research) usually answer. But over the years naval architects and others have asked for answers to some unusual questions. "They are open minded about special testing," says Tim Nolan, P.E., Naval Architect at Tim Nolan Marine Design, PC. Special testing might mean a peculiar test of a typical craft. Or it might be basic resistance and seakeeping tests for an unusual craft; which might seem easy, but the test setup can become difficult. Located in Vancouver, Canada, the OEC consists of a 220 by 12 ft.
Designers Aim for More Flexibility, Efficiency and Multi-mission Capabilities
Four years into the new Millennium designers of workboats are incorporating new technologies and greater efficiencies into their designs to produce vessels that can do more work and do it better than designs of just a few years ago. This is very prevalent in the oil patch where today's supply boat designs emphasize more efficient vessels that can carry as much material to the rig or platform as vessels 30-40 ft. longer in years past. "Our new 207 ft. supply vessels can carry over 6,000 barrels of liquid mud," said Robert Socha, marketing manager of Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La. "That is a key feature of these vessels that can work the new deeper gas wells on the shelf and also carry drilling liquids to the growing number of deepwater wells now in service," Socha added.
