haida: now served with working engines

It's been a while since Haida has stretched her sea legs -- 10+ years. While sea trials may still be in the (very) distant future, the engineers gave a preview this week of what's waiting to roar to life.

M.Y. Haida has been moored in Port Khalid, Sharjah during an extensive overhaul and refit for the last several years.

Haida is powered by two Enterprise medium-speed diesel engines that produce about 1000 hp each. She's been reported to reach almost 19 knots, but sea trial data from 1947 report a speed of 16.7 knots at max engine RPM. Over the last year, the refit support team has been working to locate replacement head gaskets for the Enterprise engines. As you can imagine, it's not easy getting parts for an engine built in the early 1940s. After searching around the United States, the engineering team in Sharjah decided to fabricate the head gaskets. With a little (read: quite a bit) of love and care, the engineers put the Enterprise engines back online.

The three-bladed, 65" propellers await the command of the reinstated air control system.

Port astern, starboard ahead.

This picture was taken while the port engine was going astern. In these early quayside tests, the engines are only going 150-200 RPM. 

This is the engine control station that has been temporarily installed as a bridge wing station. Control air signals from this stand travel down to the engine room.

The Enterprise engines have been modified to accept the control air signal. This eliminates the need for a telegraph; however, the engines can still be controlled from the engine room.

More quayside tests will be necessary before the engines will be ready to go to sea. In the mean time, work continues on restoring the interior and updating the vessel's systems. 

If you squint, you can make out the puffs of smoke coming from the funnel. Haida will celebrate her 64th birthday this year.

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Posted in: Enterprise,haida,haida photos,work photos

January 28, 2009: haida rises

For someone who has only been working with Haida for three weeks, Thursday was surprisingly emotional for me. Docking a vessel, even one that has not moved under its own power for more than 10 years, is like putting a person in a medically induced coma for an operation. The graving dock is the admitting room. As Haida slowly rose out of the water, she painfully parted with the water that held her, gave life to her engines, and let her glide freely around the world. As her weight transferred to the steel railway carriage and chock blocks, the soft plea to stop the lift could faintly be heard. And as the last drops of water ran down the keel and fell to the lift's deck, Haida knew that she wouldn't likely feel the Dubai Creek for many months.

Haida glides into the synchrolift with the assistance of the towing ropes.

The synchrolift gradually brings Haida out of the water.

It was done; she was ready to be transferred to her operating room, a berth just meters away from the synchrolift that admitted her to Al Jadaf. The nurses, men in blue coveralls emblazoned with a Goltens "G," quickly moved in to prep for surgery. They immediately attended to her underwater plating that was in dire need of scraping. In some places the marine growth was almost three inches thick. Tiny microcosms of barnacles, coral, and crabs had taken refuge everywhere on the hull. Scrape by scrape the growth fell to the ground. Scott rescued three tiny crabs from a giant chunk that fell intact. "You three are the chosen ones," he said as he picked up another crab. "Well, you four are the chosen ones. You (might) live to see another day in the Creek."

The men from the Goltens Ship Repair quickly tackle scraping and washing the underwater portion of the hull.

After scraping the bow stem, this chunk of coral fell onto the steel railway carriage. It is larger than my hand.

When the nurses finished a section of scraping, more men would come behind to pressure wash the hull to remove the remaining debris. Everyone worked very quickly to scrape and bathe Haida before the growth dried out.

The sun set on Haida ending her first day out of the water in 10 years. The shipyard noise softened to a dull roar. Over the next 60 days and beyond, Haida will undergo countless procedures: steel renewal, sea chest installations, the addition of underwater lighting, and others. The most involved operation will be the removal of the existing stabilizing fins and the installation of four new fins. Time will tell what other tasks might be added to her schedule.

For now, it seems the work day grows longer as doctors and nurses scurry to put Haida back into her prime condition.

The Cayman ensign flies stiffly in Thursday's strong winds.

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Posted in: al jadaf,haida,haida photos,work photos

January 13, 2010: haida

My work with the Haida (HI-duh) project is both interesting and slightly sad. The yacht was beautiful in its day. Haida was built for Major Max Fleischmann in 1946. At the time, it was the largest pleasure yacht ever built, with an overall length of 168 feet. Major Fleischmann built 22 yachts over his lifetime; Haida was "America's Oustanding Seagoing Diesel Yacht."

The owner of the offshore company acquired Haida in 1999 from Malaysia. The vessel was towed to the Arabian Gulf and Port Khalid in Sharjah. Since her acquisition, a lengthy restoration and retrofitting project has progressed, albeit slowly. The yacht's captain has overseen the work for the last 10 years. He has been instrumental in maintaining the aesthetics and beauty of the vessel. The project team has been open to many questions, but one topic is strictly off-limits: the timeline. The captain said today that two years ago he thought he was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, he doesn't see the light anymore.

That's a pretty big statement considering that Haida left Port Khalid today for a drydock in Dubai. She was beautiful even under tow and in her mothballed state. This will be the first time Haida has been grounded since she was acquired 10 years ago. You can expect her bottom to be in a disgraceful state -- 10 years of warm, Arabian Gulf waters will have cultured marine growth and corrosion like no other. I'll be going on location to photograph the docking.

In the meantime, here are two pictures of Haida leaving Port Khalid this morning. The first picture was right in front of the berth. The second picture (now my desktop wallpaper - I'll be emailing it to a marine engineering professor this evening, too) was taken through the manmade rift-raft (edit: rip rap) that protects the port from erosion.

The tow is set for Haida near her berth in Port Khalid.

Haida through the rip rap as she leaves Port Khalid for Dubai.

I hope to take more pictures tomorrow of the port and the offshore supply vessels. Aside from the opportunity to take these pictures, I've also been working on schematics of the HVAC system's chilled water circuit. It appears that a lot of my job will be redrawing the old prints into AutoCAD for updating and submitting to ABS.

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Posted in: haida,haida photos,work photos