The hybrid ferries of CalMac are real

While it would unkind to say that I actually doubted the rumours that I first detected regarding ‘battery operated ferries’ coming to the Clyde, the stories did come as a surprise, meaning that whoever was going to undertake this venture (there were no real details given) had to be ready to try something new.

It wasn’t long before the story broke formally, and the news came of two hybrid RoRo (roll-on roll-off) diesel-electric ferries, described as a world first for such sea-going vessels.

While the principle of using diesel (or other) powered generators to power electric propulsion units (eliminating the need for a direct connection of a drive-shaft between the engine and the propeller), combining this with rechargeable batteries which will supply a minimum of 20% of energy consumed was new.

I’m afraid I find little that ever makes me agree with those I refer to as ‘professional CalMac bashers’, and the fact that CalMac went with this proposal is, to me, yet another reason to turn a deaf ear towards them.

In operation, the ferries can be powered from the generators, or the batteries, which are kept topped up by the generators, and will be charged overnight, while the vessels are moored. Although the overnight charging will be carried out using mains electricity, it is hoped that energy from local wind, wave or solar systems will be used to charge the batteries as such facilities become available near the moorings.

Scottish build

Even more remarkable is the fact that the innovative project will also be undertaken on the Clyde – the ferries will be built by Ferguson Shipbuilders, which will be working along with Glasgow-based ship design specialists SeaTec, and electrical specialists Tec-Source. The project is supported by a Scottish government loan, with an additional funding of £450,000 provided from the European Regional Development Fund.

Ferguson Shipbuilders Limited is now part of the Ferguson Group, and is a shipyard located in Port Glasgow. Unfortunately,  it is currently notable as being the last remaining shipbuilder on the lower Clyde, and the only builder of merchant ships on the river, where it has long been a builder of RoRo ferries.

The contract is worth £22 million, and the media carried news of the first steel being cut on January 30, 2012s, with the first ferries of the ferries set to enter service in early 2013.

The 900 tonne ferries are designed t0 accommodate 150 passengers and 23 cars, and for short routes, including the link between Skye and Raasay.

Some background links to save you the effort of digging:

Hybrid Ferries Project | CMAL | Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd

CMAL Hybrid Ferry Presentation (PDF, 1.3MB)

CMAL Hybrid Ferry Presentation (PDF, 1.9MB)

Hybrid ferry via CMAL publicity

Glasgow is a space industry hub

CubeSat

The United Kingdom is the only country to have successfully developed and then abandoned a satellite launch capability, when the Black Arrow project was cancelled July 29, 1971. The UK was third only to the United States and USSR in the field of rocket technology, with a viable satellite launch programme and even plans for manned missions. A brief summary can be found in Britain’s first space pioneers.

I’ve no idea if there was any Scottish involvement at the time, or if there were any significant Scots in the programme.

However, in later years, I do know from my involvement in Scottish electronics manufacture that there were a number of American companies based in Glenrothes, and they were involved in manufacturing hardware used in spacecraft assembly, but I suspect their work may have been largely bound for aerospace applications, rather than space. Raytheon was developing space components from its base in Glenrothes in the 1960s, while Ferranti in Edinburgh built the initial navigation platform which was used for the Ariane launch vehicle.

Now, it would appear that Glasgow is seeing a rise in popularity as a centre for space development.

Previously, Glasgow based Clyde Space only built sub-systems, but was recently awarded the rights, by the new UK Space Agency, to design a tiny, cube-shaped satellite that will allow British Space experts to explore some of the questions about the solar system. UKube-1 is due to be launched in mid 2011, and is smaller than a home computer. In future, it could be used for space weather and atmospheric studies, particle science, or the early detection of bush fires or Tsunamis.

Clyde Space is now the largest indigenous space company in Scotland, and produces high-quality, high-performance systems for very small spacecraft called “CubeSats”.

The company made the news recently, with the announcement of a £1 million funding package, which will allow it to expand its current operation.

Space in Scotland

The University of Strathclyde hosts the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory, which works with teams from Astrium, described as the third biggest space enterprise on the planet, and contractor to ESA (European Space Agency).

STAR-Dundee Ltd is the global leading developer and supporter of SpaceWire technology, a computer network used to connect elements like sensors or telescopes on board spacecraft.

The University of St Andrews is home to the School of Physics and Astronomy.

All these organisations work with the UK Space Agency.

See also Space age scotland – The Official Gateway to Scotland.

Update February 2012

I wish I could buy shares in most of the companies I spot – they often seem to turn up later doing well (unless they are ones which I have selected to poke fun at, which hopefully all go away and are never heard of again),

Clyde Space has been awarded funding to progress with two projects:

The firm has secured nearly £70,000 under the UK Space Agency’s National Space Technology Programme (NSTP).

The funding will help Clyde further work on miniaturised electric propulsion systems for very small spacecraft.

The other project involves developing attitude planning and control algorithms for low cost spacecraft.

Clyde has been working on tiny electric propulsion systems for very small spacecraft called “CubeSats” and nanosatellites with Southampton-based Mars Space Ltd.

Funding of £24,000 has been awarded for their joint work on a micro pulsed plasma thruster for CubeSats.

Clyde said the project would take the technology forward to a flight-ready prototype.

The UK Space Agency awarded a further £44,000 for a joint project with the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde.

That project involves optimising algorithms for control of CubeSat attitude, furthering work already completed at Clyde.

Via Glasgow firm Clyde Space awarded funding

Guess I’ll just have to keep watching for their name to pop up again.

The Clyde: Films of the River 1912 – 1971

Waverley departing Bute © Zak

The Clyde: Films of the River 1912 – 1971 runs from June 20, 2009 until  September 20, 2009 at The Lighthouse in Glasgow.

The exhibition is accompanied by a number of related evens and workshops, all detailed on the Lighthouse’s own web site.

Opening Hours are: Mondays, Wednesday to Saturday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm; Tues 11:00 am – 5:00pm; and Sundays 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Admission varies, but Adults are £4, with Concessions £2 at the moment.

Most important of all is Saturday, when entry is currently FREE!

One of the particular references covered is going Doon the Watter, when those from the city descended on the coastal resorts of the Clyde in the bad old days when the local factories all closed down at the same time, and the workers were blessed with the beginning of legislation that gave them not only a holiday, but a holiday with pay. While it was welcome, it should be borne in mind that this was not the free option we enjoy today, and the workers had to work harder to make up the lost time and earn that pay.

There’s more information to be found out about this particular Clyde holiday, at the Castle House Museum in Dunoon, which has a special display organised around going Doon the Watter.

Stormy water

Since deciding the news was too gum, or controversial, to provide a reliable source of inspiration, I’ve been at a bit of a loss for material. To be fair though, I’ve also been busy elsewhere, so blogging time is at a premium at the moment, and only particularly noteworthy or relevant elements even get noticed at the moment. However…

I have to admit that I don’t usually see the Firth of Clyde in times of really bad weather. Even when I visit during the winter, and even use the ferries at that time of year, the weather is invariably cold, but calm, and I’ve never made a crossing on anything more than the Firth of Clyde’s equivalent of a millpond. The closest I’ve been was a drive down the A77, to a destination past Stranraer, and there were some interesting moments as we timed some parts of our run down the coast road to avoid the sea as it smashed into the shore and made its way onto land, but we were lucky that day, and the wind was blowing the worst of it back  out to sea, and not the other way

However, having a look round some friendly sites, I see that the waters of the firth have been less than welcoming, with January 11 providing some spectacular photo opportunities, and I suspect an upset tummy or two.

As usual, many thanks to Zak for some great shots, and the two below are testament to my wisdom in staying away from the ferries when the weather is less than ideal. MV Clansman (Arran) and MVArgyll (Isle of Bute) – thank goodness the sisters have at least some distinguishing features and I could work out that this was not MV Bute.

As noted in the comments, Gourock gets busy in this weather, as it has some natural shelter from the sea, while the other piers have little or no protection from whatever the waters of the Clyde want to throw at them when it’s rough, so the ferries are diverted there, and sometimes have to queue like aircraft stacked at an airport. And you don’t even want to think about the resultant journey times, extended by the time taken to divert from the original port of call, and the resultant bus and train journeys that CalMac have to lay on for the waylaid passengers. However, there is always one positive aspect to such events, even though the operator has no control over the weather, it always provides a golden opportunity to be seized on by those who seem to like nothing more than griping about CalMac and the poor quality of their service. Hunting the web for them can be fun, and if the weather is fine, then they’ll complain about anything just to fill their time, even moaning about the tea on board on one occasion, when they were presumably stuck for something relevant to have a dig at.

MV Clansman Arran ferry Firth of Clyde January 11 2009

MV Argyll Isle of Bute ferry January 11 2009

QE2 makes final farewell trip to the Clyde

Farewell flower bed on Greenock Esplanade 2008 © Zak

The QE2 arrives in Greenock at 12:00 BST (if the schedule is maintained) on Sunday, October 5, for her last ever visit to the Clyde, where she was launched from the Clydebank shipyard of John Brown on September 20, 1967.

The flower bed at Greenock commemorated the QE2′s 40th birthday and visit to Greenock on September 20, 2007.

This is the final farewell trip for the ship, and the QE2 will stay at Greenock until 22:00 BST, when she will depart beneath a firework display to mark the event , and head for Queensferry to make ready for the remainder of her journey. Tickets for this final cruise were reported to have sold out with an hour of going on sale.

There will be no public access during the stopover.

40th anniversary flower bed at east end of Greenock Esplanade © Thomas Nugent

The trip will end on November 28, when the QE2 will retire on arrival at the emirate port, to be converted into a hotel, having been purchased by investment group Dubai World for $100 million (£55 million).

The 70,000 tonne QE2 has broken records, transported troops and hosted royalty. In her time at sea, she has crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times, covered more than 5.6 million nautical miles, and carried more than 2.5 million passengers.

During her previous visits, the QE2 has always attracted crowds, and this visit is expected to be no exceptions, with thousands being expected to take advantage of this last ever opportunity to see the vessel in waters where was created.

The Farewell Visit

The BBC reported on the the arrival of the Queen Elizabath 2, and showed a short video of the event.

Observed from the shore during her farewell visit, the QE2 follows HMS Glasgow along the Clyde, together with a flotilla of small boats.

Your scribe has worked in one or two of the Clyde’s shipyards, including that of John Brown some years ago. During one spell there, we had occasion to wander through the old sheds at the west end of the yard. I believe these are no longer there, but at the time were used to hold the wooden patterns that had been used to form many of the parts for ships built at the yard, and we noticed that many of the patterns were marked with identification for the QE2 project.

I guess if the sheds are gone then the contents will have been discarded as well, with the knowledge that the QE2 would be heading toward retiral in a few years, the chances of needing any of thei original patterns would be slight, and modifications to the ship over the years would probably have rendered them obsolete in any case.

Watching the Antiques Roadshow this evening, it occurred to me that if they hadn’t been so big, those patterns would probably have made interesting collectors’ items nowaday – if they could have been sneaked past security – and might even have been worth something. I might add that the smallest was the size of a suitcase, and made of solid, laminated, wooden blocks.

Crane collapse in Govan

It looks as if time may be catching up with some of the artefacts that have survived from the Clyde’s shipbuilding days, with the collapse of an 80 ton crane in BAE Systems’ shipyard in Govan today.

One man received hospital treatment for minor injuries, while two others received treatment on site.

The crane, which appears on the extreme left of the photograph, was taking part in routine lifting operations, and had recently passed inspection in March.

An investigation will follow, in order to determine the cause of the failure.

Photograph by Chris Gunns.

Clota – The Roman Clyde

Every so often, web video demonstrates its ability to surprise, and when it does, and we’re spared the juvenile ramblings of the kids with mobile phone with video cameras, then we’re treated to the occasional gem that we might never have seen otherwise.

The following pair of videos feature a description of the Clyde, or Clota, dating to Roman times, and provides an interesting look at a number of hidden or secret aspects that the vast majority of us have probably passed hundreds of times, without realising their history or significance.

Clota Part 1, Bishopton to Greenock:

Clota Part 2, Greenock to Largs:

Hoverbarge on the Clyde

I learnt about an interesting concept today, when I discovered the HOVERBARGE, a non-propelled craft capable (in this case) of carrying up to 200 tonnes, from Ferguson Shipbuilders at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde on January 22, 2008. Shipbuilders on the Clyde may not be putting out the same volume as they did in years gone by, however that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing interesting things.

The basic concept of the hoverbarge is to provide a low-tech, amphibious solution for accessing sites using typical equipment found in their area, such as diesel engines, ventilating fans, winches and marine equipment. The air cushion vehicle (ACV) displaces the same amount of water when hovering, or floating as a normal vessel. It continues to perfrom as a displacement vessel until it reaches a critical speed while hovering, and once it has passed the hump speed will lift out of the water and skim over the water’s surface. The power required to do this can be enormous as the power v drag curve, once a speed of 6-7 knots has been passed, is exponential.

The load to move a 200 tonne payload hoverbarge at 5 knots would be 4 tons, but at 15 knots this would increases to 36 tons and  continues to rise rapidly thereafter. On a high speed hovercraft the skirt and air distribution design is made complex by the need to cope with the air cushion being washed out by a wave. The slower speed and large mono chamber of the hoverbarge actually helps reduce the effect of wave action as it avoid this wash out effect.

The cost per ton hovered or lifted is not a straight line curve, and depends on other factors such as the craft’s specification, density of load, climate, and hover height. Generally the larger the unit and tonnes hovered, the more efficient the system becomes. Most of the cost to hover the barge depends upon the perimeter length. For example, on a single load of 100 tonnes an area of 1555 square feet is required. For a 130 tonne load, the area required rises to 2,015 square feet, requiring an increase of 30% in lift but only 19% on the perimeter. Similarly larger hoverbarge become still more economical. To move from lifting a 1,000 tonne load to 2,000 tonnes would only require a 38% perimeter increase to achieve this doubling of capacity.

Damn! There goes another…

Conspiracy Theory!!!

I love conspiracy theories, but before you jump to the obvious conclusion to that admission, let me quickly add that I love them because they hoist a great big warning flag over anyone that professes to believe them, and it has LOSER and LOONY boldly emblazoned across each side.

It doesn’t take the greatest insight in the world to come to a couple of conclusions about these theories. First, if the serious ones were true, then there would swarms of assassins roaming the world and silencing advocates by means of convenient ‘accidents’, leaving a trail of bodies. Second, in most cases, the ‘plots’ they are supposed to be revealing would have had been all but impossible to hide if they really had taken place – after all, the Conspiracy Theory has revealed it, hasn’t it?

However, back in the real world (where what really happens generally beats any conspiracy theory in terms of credibility anyway), I happened to refer to out page on HMNB Clyde, or Faslane as the laxy media likes to call it, and as I glanced at the map/aerial view I thought it looked a bit different. Sure enough, the aerial imagery has been updated by those nice people at Google, and now shows the whole area, including the ‘secret’ base where Britain Trident nuclear powered, and nuclear armed, submarines are serviced.

The appearance of this imagery is something of a shame, as it means that one of the classic Conspiracy Stories has been blasted out of the water (again), and that’s the one that kept on telling the world that the aerial imagery imagery over the Faslane area was censored by the UK Governement. It was a nice story to for the nuts to be hanging their hats on for a while, and to the less well informed appeared to be true. If you looked at the old imagery, there was the evidence in plain sight (or not perhaps) as the images were in high resolution all the way up the watery part of the Gare Loch, but when you looked east towards the area when the Clyde base was, lo and behold it was all in fuzzy low resolution – proof positive of yet another Government cover up.

Of course, the rest of the world (without the buttons or zips on the back of their heads) knew the reason was simply that the high resolution coverage was available, or hadn’t been through the mighty image machine that processes the aerial pics, stretches and squeezes them, then knits all the image tiles together, so they appear to be continuous, but, why let reality get in the way of a good story?

Here’s the aerial view of the area, showing not only the base, but also the MoD’s training area to the north and west – I suppose that’s also no longer a hidden secret as well. Whatever next?

As an aside, it is in fact true that all Ordnance Survey mapping ignored MoD and similar installation in the past. The area where they were located were simply left blank, implying there was nothing there. Again, this is not great revelation, given the time taken to produce maps a few years ago. Without GPS, aerial surveys, computer graphics and printing, producing OS maps was a slow process, and updates took years. I think I heard one employee suggest that 5 years was a typical lead time for a change. Then there was World War II, which meant the that the Government run Ordnance Survey was staffed by people who had been trained to protect sensitive information. Again, no great conspiracy theory, just a change in attitude over the years.

New OS mapping shows all installations, though that doesn’t necessarily mean it also shows what the facilities depicted actually are. You still have to some work yourself, but the days of looking at a blank map while you stand beside something that shouldn’t be there are becoming a thing of the past.

However, if you nip over to Denmark (if memory serves well) then you’ll find their aerial images covered with blotchy camouflaged areas, or strangely shaded areas of forest. If you stand at, or preferably near those area, you’ll find the military there are still happy to highlight their installations’ presence using these methods, they just don’t want you to see what’s inside them from above.

George Parsonage MBE

George Parsonage is viewed as a hero by many Glaswegians, and by those who owe their lives to both him and his family in days gone by.

Although he continued as as officer of The Glasgow Humane Society, he was forced to stand down from his rescue activities on the River Clyde some years ago, when that old favourite of the legal fraternity was dusted down and brought out for yet another airing, when he was told by the Police that they could no longer call on his services for Health & Safety reasons, as he normally operated alone, from his rowing boat, and operating alone meant that he had no backup if he himself was to get into trouble during a rescue. There was also a Government move at the same time, when the Fire Service became the Fire and Rescue Service, legally obliging it to carry out rescues.

At the time, the society was unable to afford another body to provide this backup, and the task of rescuing those in difficulty on/in the river has passed to the emergency services, as decreed. While they undoubtedly cover the majority of the area, the boathouse on Glasgow Green, George (and now also assistant) are still the place/people where anyone in the are of the Green turn to when an emergency arises, and they are still the first line when it comes to rendering assistance in their own area.

A small mention also for the society’s Ship’s Cats. Lucky Trainspotter joined in early 2007, and succeed Wee Tabix (the cereal killer), who was on board for 17 years. Both described as feral, so well able to look after themselves in Glasgow, especially if wandering around the Green!

The following video gives some insight into George Parsonage’s life and work:-

George Parsonage

A Life Saving Lives