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Ocean Engineering Centre News

13 Oct 2017

Markey ARR Winch System: Tried & Tested in the Toughest Tug Challenges

For more than 30 years, Markey Machinery has worked with the LNG and marine transportation Industries with the goal of developing winches designed to work under the most challenging conditions. The effort includes extensive design shop testing and actual commercial work, a combination that has ultimately produced an understanding of the operational issues facing terminal and tug operators. The many milestones in the development of Markey’s Asymmetrical Render/Recover (ARR) – technology by which hawser winches are able to maintain mean line pulls up to the bollard pull of the tug – came over a period of time that spans 25 years. The initial 20+ years of hawser winch design and Render/Recover development followed a traditional design path, influenced, in part, by market pressures.

10 Sep 2004

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.

02 Oct 2007

UBC Students Fight to Save Testing Facility

Mechanical engineering students at the University of B.C. are petitioning to stop the university from demolishing a unique vessel-testing facility to replace it with condominiums. The fight brewing over the fate of the 30-year-old tow-tanks is the latest controversy in UBC's aggressive plan to make millions for its endowment fund by developing its prime Point Grey real estate. UBC has come under fire before for developing its campus, including the introduction of shops to its academic district and the construction of student residences that critics said overlooked nudists at Wreck Beach. UBC's first development venture, Hampton Place, netted $116m for UBC's endowment fund, which generates interest used for scholarships and academics.