Doors for HMNZS Canterbury's RHIBs

[rubberduck]

Design review for Navy's new vessel after two accidents

5:00AM Wednesday February 06, 2008


CAPTION: A rigid-hulled inflatable boat in its alcove on the side of the Canterbury. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The Navy's newest ship may get doors over the alcoves where its rigid hulled inflatable boats are stored, to stop them being swept away in big seas.

The Navy lost one of its rigid hulled inflatable boats (RHIB) in July when the new multi-role ship HMNZS Canterbury was hit by a large wave in the Bay of Plenty.

The boat, believed to be worth more than $200,000, was swept north and washed ashore on Great Barrier Island several days later. It was a write-off.

The Canterbury had two RHIBs, which are stored and launched from alcoves on either side of the ship close to the waterline.

Defence Minister Phil Goff said yesterday the ship's design and construction were being reviewed after the inflatable was lost and a crew member drowned in October when a RHIB capsized as it was being launched.

Other issues also included the ship's ability in big seas and its ability to do the missions for which it was bought, including patrols to the Southern Ocean.

Mr Goff said the Navy was looking at installing doors over the alcove to stop large waves ripping the boats out.

Last June, when the ship was commissioned in Melbourne, the NZPA asked the Navy if the inflatable boats were safe and secure in their alcoves on either side of the ship.

The agency asked if the design of the alcoves just a few metres above the waterline meant a large wave could crash into the alcove and sweep the boats away.

The Navy issued an assurance that the boats were secure.

Mr Goff said if the Canterbury was to go to the Southern Ocean, the design of the RHIB alcove needed attention and would be resolved before the ship went into heavy seas that could cause the loss of another RHIB.

"The option they are looking at ... is one of having sliding doors that would close off the RHIB alcove."

However, he told National Radio yesterday that the challenge was having the boats available to be launched at a moment's notice for emergencies such as a man overboard.

"Therefore, they have to get a design which both protects the alcove but does not slow down the process of launching the boat."

Mr Goff said said New Zealand Defence was working through the issue with the ship's builders, Tenix, under the ship's warranty.

"It is not an issue that will prevent in the medium-term the operation of this ship in some of the most demanding waters in the world, that is the Southern Ocean."

The minister said he was concerned that the ship had a "design flaw" in the RHIB alcove when it went into service.

- NZPA

This story was found at: www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=32&objectid=10490812

[corsair67]

Nah, just get a few occie straps to hold them in place; that should do the trick.

[beagle]

occie straps ??

[corsair67]

Occy/occie straps - those elastic things with hooks on the end - that are really useful for removing an eye when the hook gives way!

How embarrasment - I can't even remember what we used to call them in NZ anymore!

[Bruce]

Bungees mate, you know, as in jumping....

[beagle]

There we go again, the aussies stealing another kiwi invention and renaming it......

[yak2]

Occie straps. AKA octupus straps. Originally made popular by surfies ('60's) for attaching surfboards to the racks mounted on their cars. Also useful for taking out unsuspecting persons eyes, and therefore now banned. As for bungees.......they have been around since at least WW1. Widely used as a spring in aircraft undercarriages.
Lamingtons. Now I'm sure they originated here,but.........

[flyjoe180]

And next the Hamilton jet, an invention that originated in the backyard of Old Joe Smith in the Waggafugga in the GAFA.

[flycookie]

FlyCookie: Somewhat off-thread, but I think the fella who invented the RHIB/RIB deserves a jersey here. From the Torygraph.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2008/02/15/db1501.xml

David Stogdon
Last Updated: 1:31am GMT 15/02/2008

David Stogdon, who has died aged 89, saw the culmination of his work as a lifeboat designer in the large, fast, rigid inflatable boats that are now in safe use around the world.



Stogdon [third from left] with Breton lifeboatmen during trials of
a RIB: later he persuaded the RNLI to build its own fleet

His resolve that there should be no more "lifeboat widows" was formed when, within a few months of his joining the RNLI as its inspector for Scotland in 1952, the Fraserburgh and the Arbroath lifeboats, both traditionally built wooden craft, were lost with many casualties.

Inspired by the rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) - tubular craft with wooden or aluminium floors - which had been developed by Rear-Admiral Desmond Hoare, the founding headmaster of Atlantic College, Stogdon set out to design a lifeboat which could not be sunk and which would not capsize and trap its crew.

Once he had carried out trials using a Zodiac rubber boat owned by the Jersey Fire Service, Stogdon, who had by now been promoted inspector of lifeboats, persuaded the RNLI to build its own fleet of inflatable craft. Critics dismissed these as mere inshore rescue boats; but Stogdon understood his business and lifeboatmen trusted him and his confidence that there would be a class of seagoing RIBs.

After retirement in 1981, Stogdon worked as a consultant for the Royal Netherlands Sea-Rescue Institution (KNRM). The Dutch had bought their first Atlantic 21, a RIB developed by the RNLI, in 1973; and when the RNLI showed reluctance to build bigger RIBs, Stogdon gave the Dutch the confidence to develop 42ft, 47ft and 62ft lifeboats with waterjet propulsion.


In 1984 he attended the launch, by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, of the first of these craft, which was named Koningin Beatrix. They were fast and highly manoeuvrable boats, able to survive in the worst sea conditions, including heavy breaking seas over offshore sandbanks. They could safely come alongside vulnerable craft, such as yachts, and were easily launched and recovered.

Stogdon was appointed MBE, and was awarded the KNRM's silver medal. His real reward, though, was that since the Dutch replaced all 65 of their lifeboats with RIBs - and, as a result, have the fastest and finest fleet of rescue boats in the world - there have been no more lifeboat widows in Holland.

Dutch-built rigid inflatable lifeboats constructed in line with Stogdon's ideas have now been sold all over the world, and his designs have helped to save several thousand lives.

Edgar David Stogdon was born on New Year's Day 1919 at Harrow School, where his father and grandfather were housemasters.

A schoolboy accident at Harrow prevented David from taking his school certificate, and he finished his education by learning to speak German in Czechoslovakia.

By then he had already taken to the sea. As a child he had persuaded his mother to buy him a small rowing boat from the boating pond at Frinton-on-Sea. As his parents slept in their deckchairs, he rowed it out into the North Sea until he could just see the church spires on the Essex coast. The boat went home to Harrow on the train with him.

As a teenager he sailed a 12ft dinghy from Fowey to Falmouth - accepting the indignity of being towed back by a local fisherman. He joined the yachtsmen's reserve, the RNV(S)R, in 1938; and after war service in the Royal Navy he was ready to enter any harbour in Britain without a chart. He marked how, when storms threatened, landsmen would head for the shore and all its dangers, whereas he, as a man of the sea, would head for open waters.

During the war, on July 22 1940, Stogdon was navigating and antisubmarine control officer in the destroyer Brazen, off Dover, when she was overwhelmed by enemy aircraft. Bombs broke Brazen's back, but as she sank Stogdon remained alone at his two-pounder high-angle gun. Despite the gun's frequent jamming, he succeeded in shooting down at least three German Stuka dive-bombers as they flew straight at him. He was mentioned in dispatches.

By late March 1942 Stogdon was gunnery officer of the destroyer Tynedale, escorting forces bound for Operation Chariot, the commando raid on St Nazaire. On March 27 the enemy submarine U-593, commanded by the U-boat ace Gerd Kelbling, was spotted returning, damaged, from its first patrol. Tynedale detected the enemy boat and attacked, forcing Kelbling to dive and thus denying the Germans early warning of the operation.

By chance, on December 12 1943 in the Mediterranean, U-593 torpedoed Tynedale - but was then hunted and sunk by Tynedale's escorts, so ending Kelbling's U-boat career. Stogdon was again mentioned in dispatches.

Years later, in the mid-1990s, Stogdon sought out Kelbling and insisted on inviting him to a reunion of the St Nazaire survivors. With his characteristic charm and quiet humour Stogdon ensured that Kelbling was, eventually, welcomed.

As inspector of lifeboats for Scotland from 1952 to 1960, Stogdon made several visits to Stroma, in the Pentland Firth, an island known for its "wreckers", people who lure ships to destruction in order to plunder the wreckage. In Bella Bathurst's book, The Wreckers (2005), Stogdon recalled: "Every house was stuffed with wreck… clocks, telescopes, binnacles… I seem to remember enormous dining room tables in small cottages."

David Stogdon, who died on February 1, married, in 1948, Dorothea ("Doro") Haviland, who survives him. They had three sons, two of whom survive him, and two daughters.

[skyhawkdon]

Navy wages fight to pin blame for ship's flaws
By HANK SCHOUTEN - The Dominion Post | Friday, 29 February 2008

A battle is looming over who is responsible for serious design problems with the navy's new ship Canterbury - the shipbuilder or the Defence Ministry.

Problems with the ship were identified by a court of inquiry into the loss of one of the ship's rigid hulled inflatable boats in a storm in the Bay of Plenty last July.

The inquiry prompted Defence Minister Phil Goff to order an independent review into the Canterbury's acquisition and introduction into service.

Crown Law was also asked to see who was liable.

But at the time Mr Goff did not mention other matters uncovered by the court of inquiry including:

The ship's second RHIB was damaged and almost lost in the same storm.

The alcoves where the RHIBs are stowed often get swamped, even in moderate seas.

Water crashing into those alcoves can get into the ship through doors that need to be specially lashed to stop it happening.

The ship's engines lost half their power in the middle of the storm.

The ship's anti-roll system would not function because the ship was rolling too much.

The ship's propellers come out of the water in big seas and spin too fast, causing engine damage.

Waves crashing over the front of the ship are liable to wreck the ship's gun.

The Canterbury was travelling to Auckland as part of its maiden voyage around New Zealand when it was caught in the July 10 storm.

Winds of 110kmh and six-metre waves pounded the ship - conditions assessed as being at the top end of sea state six.

The Canterbury is supposed to be able to patrol in sea state seven.

Storm damage repairs were estimated to cost $305,000, including $275,000 for a replacement RHIB. A warranty claim is being made against Australian shipbuilding company Tenix.

A company spokesman said it was working with the ministry and "if Tenix is found to be liable, then we will certainly pay for any loss or damage".

However, the company insisted the ship met all the requirements as specified when the contract was awarded.

A former navy chief, retired Rear Admiral Jack Welch, said the navy had been lumbered with "another dog - a very expensive Charles Upham", a reference to the ill-fated second-hand fruit ferry bought in 1994 as New Zealand's first military transport ship.

It rolled so badly it was dubbed the Chuck Upham.

National Party defence spokesman Wayne Mapp said buying a one-off design was a big risk and the Government, rather than the Defence Ministry or navy, was responsible.

"They assessed the design offered and kept the money so tight they gave no flexibility to buy a more proven model," Mr Mapp said.

The Defence Ministry is still working on the terms of reference for the review ordered by Mr Goff.

A spokesman for the minister said "a lot of legal stuff" still needed to be sorted.

This included getting cooperation from Tenix, the prime contractor, which potentially faces warranty claims.

[skyhawkdon]

For once I think National's Defence spokesman has hit the nail on the head. The ship was not designed or built to naval specifications on purpose - to save money. It has been designed and built to commercial specifications and painted grey to look like a naval vessel. The root cause of this - the Gov't who imposed an unrealistic expenditure cap on the procurement of this and the five other ships. Confucius says "You get what you pay for". When will politicians ever learn?

[FlyNavy]

"Chuck Upham" is a classic. Made my day. Agree about silliness of expecting a commercial design to be suitable for stated military purposes. Maybe one day the people of New Zealand will learn that Defence is important enough to warrant spending suitable amounts of money on proper equipment.

Australia has the same mindset of 'spending less to get more' but here we hope for better outcomes. Also it needs to be acknowledged that Budgets usually dictate result. If that is the case then the expectations for the military need to be downgraded also. For example 'the chuck in big chunks' will have to head for any port in a storm. Not a bad thing really.

[beagle]

Hey Don, was that you that rang Danny Watson on ZB talk back this afternoon .