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.

Read more »

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

tour dubai: part 1 - the dubai mall

There are a few sites that I always take my visitors to see. This post is the first in a series that covers those locations. And while my Nikon D5000 provides stunning images of the environs, you really have to see all of the glitz and sand to fully appreciate where we are. So come visit! (Or at least read the blog.)

Last Friday, Tophi and I worked until lunch time and finished the day around 3:00 pm. Scott suggested that we use the rest of the afternoon to go see The Dubai Mall and have dinner. I have been to Dubai's crown jewel at least five or six times. I have walked every square meter of its spacious 4 floors, watched numerous fountain shows, gazed up at the Burj Khalifa, and enjoyed fresh fro-yo at Red Mango; however, there is always something new to see.

If you haven't hit the highlights of the "World's Greatest Tour," go back and see those here.

For now, we'll see the Dubai Mall from Tophi's eyes. 

We took the Metro from Deira City Centre to the Dubai Mall stop. As you exit the aboveground Metro station, you can't help but notice this really tall building...

 With a name like "The Dubai Mall," it must be the world's greatest.

The Guinness Book of World Records awarded this plaque to the Dubai Mall Aquarium for having the largest acrylic viewing pane, but you already knew that from reading the plaque, right?

This is Fashion Avenue's catwalk. It lights up with nifty colors and patterns that would induce a seizure for any model, but it entertains the locals!

The Dubai Mall is training kids for the a better world.  

Here's an example of training kids for a better world. Let's fill a giant bubble with air, and tell the kid to roll around the lagoon. At least we know the kid won't keep his bubble beyond the rental period...

After exploring the mall for ages, we took to the streets. Here Tophi is inspecting an interesting ramp/stair thing. Those crafty Emirati!

Abu Dhabi is host to a terrific collection of Islamic, classical, and modern art. The rejects are sent to Dubai.

 The Dubai Fountain by night. The Fountain is patterned after the Bellagio's, but this fountain can shoot almost 20% the height of the Burj Khalifa, some 500 ft.

The Burj Khalifa by dusk. The building's towers all have strobe lights that twinkle like diamonds in the night sky.

The Ice Rink at Dubai Mall -- note the figure skating on the left with the white fedora. Yeah, he had some moves.

After we went back inside, we noticed this escalator had glass sides. Our tour ended with staring at the escalator for several geeky minutes. 

So that was our trip, we finished up with a light snack at Red Mango. We tried for four hours to walk around the mall to build up an appetite, but Scott's club sandwich from lunch was enough food for several days. As a result, we weren't hungry, but there's always room for fro-yo and fresh fruit.

On our next adventure, we'll journey to the Sharjah Natural History museum -- a trip that I've been trying to make each time I've lived out here. Never fear! Ski Dubai is also in our future. For more pictures from our trip to the Dubai Mall and my other travels in the Middle East, check out my Picasa web album.

Oh, there's some really good symmetry with Tophi being here for my last winter work. It's not quite Adventures in Salisbury, but leave a comment if you have travel suggestions for us.

**AinS Bonus for Facebook users: click here.

Read more »

Posted in: dubai,leisure photos,tour series,world's greatest

a lesson on public relations

While we're taking some time to get the internet stabilized at the hotel, I'd like to bring an epic fail in public relations to your attention. So, for a post, please excuse my departure from all things Dubai, Sharjah, and Haida, because we're going to talk about an entity that really needs a good PR consultant right about now. (Well, at least we're not diverting too far...)

First, check out this article at CNET. "Apple support company sues customer for complaining"

Ahhh, right. Good read? Eh, even if you didn't read it, the article's title gives you the idea. (Imagine that -- descriptive titles. Really, who runs these journalism schools these days?)

So, this Greek man is being sued by an Apple authorized service provider (ASP). ASPs help fill in the gaps in Apple's coverage network so that customers remote from official Apple repair facilities can still get their Macs fixed. The man claims that the ASP cleaned the inside of his iMac, replaced the screen, and returned it to him; however, when he started it up, the screen was in worse shape. He informed the ASP, but they weren't interested in making another repair for free. After following the legal process, he took his story to the forums.

And now he's being sued for referring to the ASP's work as "dodgy." Regardless of the quality of work this ASP performs, their intention to recoup damage expenses will result in self inflicted wounds far deeper. What was not a story is now playing in the national blog syndicates, and I imagine it will play in the mainstream media within the next week.

So, good job, Systemgraph, you've earned an international reputation. Let's see what the reputation brings you.

Read more »

Posted in: announcements,fail,lessons,public relations

christmas in dubai

I always look forward to seeing how other countries and cultures celebrate holidays. At the outset, you may not expect an Islamic state to observe Christmas, but we must remember that mainstream Christmas has been come less about any particular religious event and more about commercial prosperity.

And nothing says commercial prosperity better than Dubai! (I mean owing* 116% of your GDP is totally prosperous, right? Right.) Arriving at Dubai's Terminal 3 really shouted "Welcome to a New Year" with its golden palm trees and three-story fountains and waterfalls. The baggage claim was tastefully decked out with the familiar, traditional Christmas tree. As I waited for my bags, I snapped this picture.

I'm telling you now: Flat screen TVs are replacing ornaments next Christmas. Dubai is always on the cutting edge. 

Even the hotel in Sharjah was in the Christmas spirit. We've been Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas with blaring soundtracks in all of the public spaces. And I simply cannot get over the delightful use of garland in the dining room. Someone should get these people to write a decorating blog. (Because someone sitting in the 31548 simply does not have enough of those in her bookmarks.)

Whose money is on them keeping this up year round?

Yes, Christmas spirit abounds in the UAE -- even 12 days after Christmas. With decorations, music, and cheer like this, there's no way the Emirates won't prosper this year.

The Burj Khalifa rings in the New Year with a stunning three-minute display of fireworks. Gridlocked attendees abandoned their cars in order to get closer to the spectacle. The fireworks were also accompanied by 287 EMS calls in less than 6 hours. Apparently, people that couldn't score parking spaces couldn't handle walking from farther away.

*Morgan Stanley estimate from 2009

Read more »

Posted in: dubai,holiday,sharjah

let's do this again

Wipe the dust off your luggage! It's time to do this Winter Work thing one last time.

So, while I'm packing my bags to head back to Dubai, I should probably bring you up to speed...

Last January, I flew out to the UAE to intern on a yacht restoration project, henceforth "The Haida Project." Haida was launched in 1947 by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, USA. There's a short background on the project here. Shortly after my arrival, the vessel was towed from her berth in Port Khalid, Sharjah to Al Jadaf Shipyard in Dubai. We waited almost two weeks before the shipyard had room to lift Haida. The lift itself was quite an undertaking. Ten years had elapsed since Haida's last docking, and shipyard and dry dock officials were concerned about the vessel settling onto the keel blocks squarely. There's an account of Haida's dry docking here.

After getting Haida out of the water, the shipyard went to work replacing steel plates that were worn from 63 years of cruising the Northern Pacific, Atlantic, and Mediterranean. The shipyard also fitted new stabilizing fins and installed underwater lights. The entire process lasted more than three months, but when they finished with a fresh coat of paint, Haida looked ready to cruise again.

That ready-to-cruise look was merely on the exterior. When I returned in July, the cabin spaces were in the process of a face lift, nay, a deep cleansing, er... stripping. At her launch, Haida was a cutting edge yacht, outfitted with the latest technologies, many fresh from developments made in World War II. The present owner wants to restore Haida to that glory by outfitting her with advanced systems. In order to do that, it was necessary to cut out most of the joinery work on the interiors. My summer work included sizing air conditioning units, taking freeboard measurements, and an assortment of CAD projects. The summer in Sharjah also meant avoiding the outrageous 120° weather.

Since the summer, the consortium of engineers, designers, and consultants have been working on several important projects including the addition of two watertight bulkheads, a new retractable, azimuthing stern thruster, and revised crew accommodation arrangements.

Phew. A semester's worth of dust sure does cake up. So this January, I'll head back to Haida to keep working on the restoration. I'll be joined by one of my classmates, and together we will tackle planning the piping systems. It's like marine engineering class all over again.

Well, you better dust off your luggage, too. Let's do this again.

Read more »

Posted in: announcements,haida,traveling