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Displaying items by tag: Beast from the East

Ireland could be set for the return of the ‘Beast from the East’ with meteorologists eyeing an upcoming weather phenomenon with concern, as Independent.ie reports.

Experts say that a so-called sudden stratospheric warming forecast for the coming days could cause the jet stream, which helps moderate Ireland’s climate, to meander more — bringing an outbreak of cold and dry weather later this month.

Similar conditions brought about the ‘Beast from the East’ blizzard in late February 2018 that blanketed much of the country with snow ahead of Storm Emma, which caused significant damage to harbours around Ireland and the UK.

Dun Laoghaire Harbour was among the worst affected, with the storm eroding coastal defences from both the West and East Piers that took more than two years to be remediated.

Howth’s historic Howth 17s also bore the brunt of the storm, as Force 12 gales blew the roof off a storage shed housing seven of the boats – though only two of them suffered serious damage.

Independent.ie has more on the story HERE.

Published in Weather

Shipyards

Afloat will be focusing on news and developments of shipyards with newbuilds taking shape on either slipways and building halls.

The common practice of shipbuilding using modular construction, requires several yards make specific block sections that are towed to a single designated yard and joined together to complete the ship before been launched or floated out.

In addition, outfitting quays is where internal work on electrical and passenger facilities is installed (or upgraded if the ship is already in service). This work may involve newbuilds towed to another specialist yard, before the newbuild is completed as a new ship or of the same class, designed from the shipyard 'in-house' or from a naval architect consultancy. Shipyards also carry out repair and maintenance, overhaul, refit, survey, and conversion, for example, the addition or removal of cabins within a superstructure. All this requires ships to enter graving /dry-docks or floating drydocks, to enable access to the entire vessel out of the water.

Asides from shipbuilding, marine engineering projects such as offshore installations take place and others have diversified in the construction of offshore renewable projects, from wind-turbines and related tower structures. When ships are decommissioned and need to be disposed of, some yards have recycling facilities to segregate materials, though other vessels are run ashore, i.e. 'beached' and broken up there on site. The scrapped metal can be sold and made into other items.