Nerd alert: this post contains material not suited for people who don't care about engineering
On Wednesday, Ben and I participated in our first inclination test. For the weak of mind you didn't heed my warning, this is a test in which known weights are shifted prescribed distances across a ship once it's in the water. At each load condition, the heel of the ship or the incline is measured. From this a final vertical center of gravity can be calculated, replacing the estimate from the design programs.
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| "Known weights" on the inclination test. |
Typically, these tests are performed with large heavy metal boxes that are shifted on temporary rails across the deck of a ship. However, INACE uses a relatively unconventional yet similarly effective method. Ben and I boarded the research vessel around nine in the morning and we were unable to find the large weights that we had learned about in our naval architecture courses. It was also suspicious that there were so many yard workers aboard the vessel until we were all queued up and stepped on a digital scale to have our weights individually recorded. From this, our weights were put into a spreadsheet and we were broken into four groups of relatively equal weight... yes, people were going to be the known weights for this test. At first I wasn't assigned to be in a group, perhaps because my weight was too insignificant or because I was just simply forgotten. At that point I was given the job of playing the boss's counterweight although given his size... and mine for that matter I wasn't well cut out for the task. In order to make sure that his movement during the test could be mitigated, I was supposed to mirror his motions on the opposite side of the ship's centerline. When the boat didn't heel enough with a weight shift in order to satisfy precision requirements, instead of bringing a heavy lead weight onto the ship, they just called to the commercial ship design department where Ben works and had more workers come out to stand for a few hours. I had my temporary title removed and I was reassigned to stationary weight duty just as Ben had already been for an hour of checking the equilibrium conditions. We were all wearing laminated papers around our necks with individual letters A through D on them denoting which group each engineer was in. While I had all of my downtime standing, I crunched some numbers and determined that the test would have cost over $6,000 in labor alone in the U.S. to use people instead of weights if everybody was just an entry-level engineer. This demonstrates a notable difference in the Brazilian work economy as a still-developing country where wages are low enough that it is still financially beneficial to use large sums of labor than investing in the equipment needed to do the task more efficiently.
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| Matt choosing to stand to minimize nausea. |
In the afternoon all three of us went on our first testes de mar (sea trials) on a waterjet-propelled boat tasked with connecting offshore oil platforms with land through the carriage of crews and goods, and provisions depending on the size of the vessel. We had been warned on multiple occasions that vomiting on sea trials was a real possibility, especially during maneuvering tests (which we didn't do that day) as the boat rolls around the rough Atlantic unexpectedly. In anticipation of this, we chose our lunches wisely and avoided topping ourselves off shortly before heading out.
When ships go out on sea trials, a lot more people tend to be "involved" with a project than you would think and space onboard almost becomes a tradable commodity as people try to take a two hour break from work to ride around the waters juxtaposing Fortaleza at 25 knots (pretty fast for a boat). For however connected with this project that we were, and Ben of the three of us had actually done work on it, as part of our education experience we were told to go to which we happily obliged. After about an hour and a half of mostly straight runs I am proud to say that none of us threw up. However, Ben and I have been told that we are attending a sea trial on the boat that will be twice as long and should go through some major maneuvering and acceleration tests so we may wind up on for two by lunchtime. Below is a video from the sea trials to give an idea for the motions on the vessel.
Thursday was Corpus Christi, a Catholic holiday that nobody here seems to be able to tell us about except that they don't work. You can try to figure it out for yourself from the Wikipedia article that I hyperlinked. Therefore we didn't do anything but go to the pool and have a good time talking and enjoying the weather. Then on Friday we were given another sea trial opportunity, this time aboard a yacht nearing completion. This too was a preliminary two hour sea trial to check major systems including the autopilot. Since most of the journey was pretty low key, we spent our time talking and enjoying the comfortable overcast breeze from the top flybridge deck. This two hour respite was enjoyable then turned downright entertaining from our perspective when it came time to dock. As we came into the marina, one of the engines had cut out because of a simple wire that came loose that wasn't discovered until later in the saga and was eventually easily popped back into place. Because of this, the yacht was being pushed by the current toward the rocks that make the marina's harbor only to be rescued by two men in a small dinghy carrying lines from the dock to the boat to restrain it. Additional lines were then connected together to winch the yacht toward its berth via the neighboring yacht's stern winch. At several points during this process, we found that some of the people involved willingly immersed themselves in the marina water to carry ropes, particularly this one older man with a moustache whom we have seen in the water on more than one occasion for different reasons this week. He must really love to swim although I wouldn't trust the water in a harbor for similar reasons that I wouldn't expose my skin to Lake Erie near where I grew up in Cleveland. The yacht was finally secured even after a rope was paddled from the dock to the boat just to come up a few feet short. Then between discovering the simple issue with the engine and the winch of a nearby boat, the yacht was quickly drawn to its starting berth and all disembarked to return to work or eat lunch.
This comedy of errors really just exemplifies why you don't test sailor superstition of leaving port on a Friday.
-David Rood
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