Throughout this newsletter you will read reports of our activities during the second half of 1997, including our annual barbecue and phone box inspection (the kiosk is still in fair good nick, by the way), a site visit to see the first new catamaran fast ferry under construction, and three talks on various aspects of nuclear testing, earthquake and electrical safety. The venue for the talks was moved off the North Shore this fall and we were rewarded by increased attendance. It is particularly gratifying to see more members' spouses attending these events as guests.

Please mark JANUARY 31^st 1998 in your calendars now, and plan to attend our AGM and Dinner/Dance at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver. If you normally live out of town, why not treat your spouse to a mid-winter weekend break in Vancouver this year? The Hyatt has always offered members of the group a concessionary room rate.

Anyone interested in helping to run the WCGCE (a most satisfying experience and a great opportunity to 'network'), please don't be shy in coming forward at the AGM. The group will value your contribution enormously.

We continue to enjoy hearing of our members' activities and exploits in connection with their engineering careers. The amazing diversity of experience within the WCGCE may broaden still further with the proposed addition of the (UK) Building Services Engineers as a sixth sponsoring Institution. It appears that there are a number of IBSE members in our region. Any WCGCE members with a particularly interesting or satisfying engineering experience to share are encouraged to write (snail- or e-mail) or even talk to the group about it.

For the information of our cyber-members, the WCGCE permanent website is now running, at http://www.wcgce.org

We are still on a learning curve (no we have not registered for 'Web-mastering 100' at either UBC or SFU), but hope to keep the site expanding and maintained current with frequent updates.

I look forward to meeting as many members as can come, at the AGM in January. See you there!

Ian Price, P.Eng., C.Eng. MIEE, Chair 1997

The WCGCE, through members representing both the region and the UK-based institutions, has a voice in how our professions are represented.

In May Arul Raja, Group Treasurer, represented the Western Canada region at the IEE North American Honorary Officers Meeting in San Francisco. This forum was attended by four representatives from the USA - East ,West Coast (2) and Southern California; and seven representatives from Canada - Ottawa (2), Toronto, Ontario, Prairies, BC and Western Canada.

Topics on the agenda included strategies for promoting the IEE in North America, improving services to members in North America, and the establishment of a North American website. The forum discussed a project to publish a "Moving to and Living in North America" guide, on the lines of "Living in Germany". If any reader can offer a model or other help in this project, please contact Arul Raja (arul@infoserve.net).

A benefit offered by IEE and noted at the conference is the IEE.ORG e-mail address. It was suggested that North American members may want to take advantage of this (as has your present chairman). It offers a stable and professionally-oriented address for IEE members. In times of frequent mergers among the companies providing Internet service, and frequent personal re-locations, this may be a valuable benefit indeed.

The next meeting of the IEE North American Honorary Officers is expected to be in April 1998.

Program Notes

As noted in the spring issue of The ChallEnge , the main event scheduled for the summer was the 5^th annual inspection of the oldest working example of Scottish telephony in BC’s lower mainland. Glorious summer weather and a convivial group of 45 members and guests, assured the success of the annual telephone box inspection and barbecue in North Vancouver on 26^th July. Grateful thanks to Jane and Ian Price for the verdant venue and capable catering that make this such a pleasing annual event.

Michael Thornley, backing up Gavin Vernon, has brought us a series of events for our fall program whose quality has been reflected by significantly increased attendance. Apologies to those who showed interest in the Bowen Island cruise originally planned for early September. A combination of old machinery and new demands forced cancellation which we all much regretted. The prospect remains on the cards for 1998.

This was an exceptional event in terms of the scale of resources employed and afforded by our host and the level of interest and attendance of our members. This is reflected in the news coverage here.

BC’s skills, location, leadership, and infrastructure, are front and centre in the competition for a stake in the emerging fast ferry market. By year’s end the first of British Columbia Ferries Corporation’s new generation of fast ferries is scheduled to float out of CFI's facility in North Vancouver. We were told that the first of three vessels for BC Ferries is scheduled to be in service from Horseshoe Bay to Vancouver Island in the spring of 1998.

The sight of the gleaming, 122.5m long Pacificat series 1000 being welded together "mega Leggo" fashion in a totally enclosed shipyard clearly impressed each of the 45 members and guests who joined the WCGCE evening visit to CFI in North Vancouver. The visit opened with a slide show and briefing by Andrew Hamilton, Vice President and General Manager for the project.

After outlining the background to the company and the Pacificat 1000 project, Mr. Hamilton introduced his Chief Financial Officer, Gavin Cooper, and seven members of his project team:

Eamonn Deegan, Engineering Manager

Joel Duprat, Safety Officer

Paul Whyte, Systems Manager

David Avery, Construction Manager

Lindsay Docherty, Quality Assurance Manager

Philip Kincaid, Planning Manager

Andry Tjahyana, Marketing.

These team members became our guides for the walkthrough of the CFI operations. For nine senior team members to take time to show us their work between 1800 to 2000 hrs on a Wednesday evening, and with great enthusiasm for the task, showed a dedicated team.

Capacity for a New World Market

CFI is a wholly owned subsidiary of BC Ferries Corporation. Its board is charged with the responsibility to lead a recovery for BC’s languishing ship building industry. The business plan requires optimum use of local manufactures and services, while influencing a technology transfer that will allow BC to become fully competitive on world markets for design and manufacture of high speed, high capacity aluminum car ferries. We were told that the BC Ferries Corp. had commissioned Sandwell Inc. to assess the market. Their studies are understood to have indicated an opportunity for exports, especially in Northern Europe. We will have to wait to learn the transportation strategy. Mr. Hamilton stated that CFI, with its main contractors, plans to develop the capacity to build three to four ferries per year when the market develops.

A key factor in achieving a high acceptance level for CFI’s welding so soon in the project was the emphasis put on training at the outset. Over 350 individuals have received seven weeks of training each before being allowed to work on the prototype ship. Many of the welders had previous experience in steel welding and had to abandon those techniques in order to become proficient in the much more sensitive technique of welding marine grade aluminum. An outcome of this technique conflict was that the only class achieving 100% graduation was a group of 13 women who had the "advantage" of no previous welding experience.

The construction concept is modeled on the successful Airbus Industries venture in Europe in which consortium members become expert in specific modules of the final product. The Pacificat 1000 is manufactured in five major component subassemblies by independent BC shipyards (see table). These are finally brought together (mega Leggo) at CFI. A sixth company, A&F Aluminum Catamarans Ltd., erects the superstructure.

Shopping the World, Cooking at Home

The marine grade 5383-series aluminum for these first ships is sourced from France, Australia and Sweden by A&M Non-Ferrous Metals of Richmond, B.C. CFI hopes that a Canadian supplier will be encouraged to manufacture the specified material as the business becomes established. Other major components from offshore are the engines ( MTU 20V 1163 TB93 ) from

Germany through an alliance with Detroit Diesel , and Water Jets from Sweden. The Pacificat is a development of a proven Australian design from Incat Designs of Australia customised by Robert Allan Limited of Vancouver. The new design suits the existing facilities of BC Ferries and the local marine and climate conditions. The design partnership is well positioned to develop future ships in this class to owner-specifications. All the assembly work for the project is local and many items of supply have also come from local sources, such as the fully integrated control panels from Prime Mover Control Inc. of Richmond, BC.

Response to the questions that followed the presentation suggested that the project is running within design parameters (stainless steel cutlery included). We were also told that the project was on track for the BC Ferries’ delivery requirement budget. Innovative features in the manufacturing process and in component handling were described. These factors may differentiate CFI as a leader in the construction of large, fast, aluminum ferries.

At a fully loaded speed of 37 knots (light load: 44 knots), the catamaran ferries are projected to shave half an hour off each journey between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo. This time saving is expected to smooth traffic flows and save infra-structural costs all through the system. We were told, however, that there will be a small increase in fuel consumption per vehicle carried.

The subsequent tour of the vessel under construction, and shown in the picture, gave members an opportunity to inspect the work in progress and learn details from the knowledgeable team members. The overall impression was of energy, enthusiasm, technology, and teamwork. Our appreciation goes to Andy Hamilton and his attentive team. We look forward to riding the Pacificat 1000 in the years ahead - in BC and abroad.

In July 1946, the United States conducted the first atomic tests on a fleet of nearly 100 ships at Bikini Atoll, 2,500 miles West of San Francisco. In 1989-1990, Jim Delgado and a team of underwater archaeologists documented the sunken fleet. The results of that two-year study were presented with a series of historic images and colour slides of the ships as they were and as they look today. Mr. Delgado, now Executive Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, trained as an underwater archaeologist at East Carolina University. He took our group of 38 back to a period of intense military interest and public curiosity in atomic warfare. Pictures of sailors aboard USS Fall River viewing the mushroom clouds of a nuclear detonation 15 miles away, preceded dark and eerie underwater views of the sacrificed warships forty-three years later.

The talk was a timely reminder of the enormous power available for destruction, and showed the vulnerability of massive steel structures. However, Ozymandias-like, it was also a chronicle of the healing capacity of time and tide. The exercise had been designed to show the effect of nuclear detonations on different types of materials and structures at varying distances from direct and indirect exposure to blast and radiation. The many questions that Mr. Delgado answered reflected the keen interest from his audience. We hope that such lessons of history need never be repeated. Natural disasters offer sufficient opportunity to realize value from the studies of the past.

After learning, in October, about a human capacity to cause massive destruction, the November event gave members an insight into how to guard themselves and their homes from the effects of a natural disaster - specifically, earthquakes. The illustrated talk by John O’Sullivan, Vice President, Westcoast Seismic Protection Co., started with a review of experiences in recent seismic events in San Francisco (17 October 1989), North Ridge, Los Angeles (17 January 1994), Kobe (17 January, 1995), and the more moderate event in Duval, Washington State, 02 May 1996.

The experience in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Kobe, where destruction was severe, was that the major cause of damage was fire following the earthquakes. Rupturing of fuel and water pipelines combine with the disruption of emergency transport access, to cause fires and prevent fire fighters from containing them. Mr. O’Sullivan outlined the steps people can take to prepare themselves, their families and their businesses for survival when the inevitable happens.

To help reduce the risks of the fire following the earthquake, John O’Sullivan described the line of earthquake-actuated automatic gas shut-off valves and seismic switches offered by his company. These are designed to shut off gas supply lines and switch off power to pumps serving fuel supply lines so as to minimize the escape of flammable product in the event of an earthquake. They are factory set to actuate only in the event of a major earthquake, so passing vehicles cannot cause premature actuation.

The talk certainly gave the 28 members who attended something to think about as they drove the bridges and tunnels to their homes in our seismically active part of the world.