For those who lack in their education: Wikipedia
Not the best Sinterklaas ever, however it seems that the group work is all falling into place and the interim report is coming along nicely meaning I can breathe a little bit more relaxed and enjoy more than 4 hours of sleep during the night. Also there is the promise of my model build to start after the weekend. Exciting times indeed!
To everyone a great Sinterklaas-Eve and fingers crossed no-one gets taken back to Spain…
Ciao!
I’m sure it’s the temperature that’s giving me the chills and not the deadlines piling up (and time running out)…
But no stress just yet, I even thought I should go sailing on Sunday. Wrong on two accounts:
1st – It was horrible weather with hail and nasty temperatures, real weather to move to the library (as I’m now) and get stuck in…
2nd – The squalls were pretty damn impressive with proper 45-ish knot gusts (that’s a force 10) and at the colder temperatures the air is denser so for the same speed the breeze is more powerful (Force is a function of velocity and mass, ie. density).
Anyway, we dropped the boat off in one piece, I didn’t go swimming (just), we had a brilliant lay-line to the Pier View and by 15.00hrs I was back behind the screen and writing reports again. Not all bad if I say so myself.
So what’s in store the coming 11 days..? Marine Hydrodynamics (Advanced fluids, naval architects only stuff…), a finished Concept Design for a sheep carrier operating in the North of Scotland, my interim report of my Bachelor research project and an abstract on that to complete the story. Basically it has taken a while before Ship Science started to feel like I remembered it but now it is just like in the olden days!
However far more important things took place over the weekend: France lost massively to the All Blacks (thanks Sis for the flag), the Aussies showed a lovely running game of ball against the Welsh and…
Finally:
Slightly delayed my cousin has finally managed to get his groundbreaking book published and out in the real world. Many congratulations to him (and his perseverance!) and best of luck with this and all new projects!
– www.pieterwisse.com
– pieterwisse.blogspot.com
– www.four-eyes.nl
Take care,
Ciao!
It’s blowing pretty impressively here in Soton, last night
wasn’t too bad luckily (couple minutes delay as a result of weather in Holland
and hefty headwinds) but today was a different matter. Rain was, at times,
struggling to hit the ground and preferring horizontal or even upwards travel!
That said, the weather is still not as bad as in other parts of Britain and I
still can move about without the need for a boat.
Having missed out on a couple of days around Uni, it is pretty full on to get
everything back up and running (Model build dates have been confirmed!) but at
the same time I am not too far behind (on my own schedule).
Anyhow, it is autumn and the weather is trying to make that clear… It just
means that coffee breaks are less frequent as it is nice and dry inside.
Ciao!
After quick ride up to the airport and again a very swift check-in and boarding, we left Southampton 10 minutes early resulting in the plane landing 20 minutes early. After driving for 15 minutes I still managed to get through customs before the scheduled arrival time of 20.30hrs.
Now I am settled in the centre of Amsterdam and my god what a brilliant place it is! Anyhow, tomorrow is the second day of the METS (and my first), hopefully I get to tick off a lot from my to-do list. What is a certainty is that I am looking forward t get stuck in and enjoy Amsterdam the coming days with friends before and after visiting the RAI.
Ciao!
Well, I went sailing on Sunday and had an absolute shocker…
To start with I was probably the least prepared I have ever been and so after calling the start (keeping us just behind the line) and the first beat I was a little slow with hooking up the A-sail for a reach across.
Basically the reach across ended up going like this: Top mark > hoist A-sail > drop jib > spinnaker on deck > go downstairs to put on a harnass > change the sheets on the A-sail by flying out to the clew > hoist Spinnaker (outside) > drop A-sail > pack jib > gybe > pack jib a bit more > gybe > get other jib on deck and plugged in > gybe > finish plugging in the jib > hoist jib > drop spinnaker…
Not many issues but not a glamour performance from yours truly either. Didn’t matter too much in the end with plenty of other stuff to do along the way (couple of jib changes downwind, broken halyard on the jib and broken jibsheet) in 15-22kts of breeze in fairly sunny conditions and ending up first in class as well as beating the other class that raced the same course on corrected.
Anyway, the shame of my performance is behind me and another day of uni-work ahead before heading for Amsterdam and the METS for the coming days. Should be interesting!
Ciao!
Well, it are busy times even with the pressing stuff out of the way. Had a lovely weekend in London, followed by a lovely weekend in Holland and the upcoming weekend of library (and possibly a bit of sailing on Sunday) before a couple of days of industry related time in Amsterdam (and a weekend to relax from that in the Netherlands as well).
So the renderings as provided below have had hardly any modifications before being submitted to the University of Southampton’s Engineering Department Manufacturing Centre and they have promised to have my 1.8m model ready at the start of the new year (2010). This has released a lot of my project pressure and means that till Christmas I have only writing left to do. Though not a task to be underestimated it does help to be slightly more relaxed with regards to the project.
This does not mean however that there isn’t anything to worry about (well I suppose I could better say that I need to keep track of…) as the first coursework assignments of the year have arrived as well as the deadline nearing for Marine Craft Concept Design and the fact that as a group project we depend on each other to actually produce something useful…
Weekend wise, the trips away from home (Soton) have not really interfered with Uni though next week’s trip might result in a couple of late nighters. But on the bright side of things it has kept life in perspective and spending time with friends and family have been really nice and relaxing.
All in all life is pretty good and at the moment the continuous downpour and early darkness are but small spoils.
Ciao!
Here are two quick renderings of my Individual Project Yacht Hull
bow towards the viewer
bow away from the viewer
I hope to be able to try out Rhino soon (spare time required) to get a nicer effect as these are done in Maxsurf.
Ciao,
Ahh, how I missed normal life… You know those days where you think you are slacking when you ‘only’ get to uni at 10 and leave before 6 at night. Basically it is good to be back!
Here’s a quick round-up of what’s going on this first semester:
* Individual Project – Bachelor Research Project and you can find more on that under ‘projects’
* Marine Craft Concept Design – A group design project where we are designing a concept for a replacement vessel for a ferry in the Shetlands. We’ve interviewed the captain, been given the wish-list and now it’s our turn to produce a viable and usable design
* Plate Structures – How strong has that plate got to be to keep the boat from crumbling…
* Marine Hydrodynamics – basically learning how to do CFD without a computer
* Manufacturing with Metals – third attempt at being thought how to design for the manufacturing of items that only mech-engs are interested in…
* High Performance Craft – It has taken 2 years but finally we are looking at boats with sails…
Anyway, deadlines are looming again and weekends are spent on campus: Life is back to normal, and I love it!
Ciao!
Monday morning and the start of Week 2, Part III. For me the proper kick-off to the third year here in Southampton and having talked to the firends on my course it will be the first week where actually something will have to be done. I’m looking forward to it with my third year project and the group concept design assignment both being something special and interesting as well as most other modules now looking into the useful stuff instead of being the basics.
The weekend was filled with following the races I wasn’t able to see from on the water in Palma though and from here again a big thank you to the crew of Henri Lloyd – Weapon of Choice for being such a great bunch of people and allowing me to learn heaps from all of them. Congratulations to them aas well for sailing into 2nd during the coastal just before it got abandonned and getting the best results of the week on the final day (showing time in the boat is very, very important). Obviously I am still very envious I had to miss out on the weekend and last nights’ antics but you can’t have it all. Some promises have been made and I look forward to following up on those.
Well… a new notepad ready to go and my calendar sorted so it’s time to go and get started with lectures, meetings and design work.
Life is pretty damn good (it does help I’m starting to acclimatise again and the sun is out)…
Ciao!
Thursday was my last day in Palma at the TP-worlds, by Tuesday it was clear the core crew would make the weight and I stayed a while longer to help as much as I can on shore and from the RIB as a nipper and a pair of outside eyes. But life goes on and Uni has started so I had to get back to that.
The racing had been great, with some clouds the weather was comfortable (temperatures stayed under 30 degrees for Thursday in Palma) and racing very, very close. Unfortunately the guys on Henri Lloyd – Weapon of Choice didn’t manage to keep hold of a 5th place at the top-mark rounding but she is still sailing better than expected. After racing I rushed to the apartment to pack, got picked up and dropped off at the airport for my flight back. The flight went smoothly and very early I managed to walk out Gatwick with my bag only to get a huge shock…
Blightly is bloody freezing after almost two weeks down south, with temperatures around 3degrees C during the midnight ride to Southampton.
Today it is back to uni, get stuck in it and see where we can go from here. But a special thanks to the guys of the team for sticking up with me and taking the time to answer my many questions and sharing so much of their knowledge. Guys like Matt Adams, Tom Wilson, Shreda, Andy Yeoman, Boycey, Freddy Shanks, David Lenz, Rob Greenhalgh, Graham Sunderland, Malcolm Stewart, Sammy Evans, Chris Walmsley, Richard Favel and all other were really helpful and great fun to be involved with.
Well, better get on with it, time for real life again…
Ciao!
