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Displaying items by tag: Nick Hancock

#Rockall - Endurance adventurer Nick Hancock has returned to port after having aborted his landing on the tiny island of Rockall in the North Atlantic.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the Briton was set to begin a two-month sojourn living on the minuscule rocky outcrop that experiences some of the world's largest waves inside an eight-foot water tank 'survival pod', in an effort to raise money for the Help for Heroes charity.

But The Guardian says heavy seas on Friday morning 31 May made landing on the island impossible, forcing his return to port at Harris in the Outer Hebrides.

"I'm disappointed, but not wholly surprised," he said upon his arrival. "We thought it was going to be all about the weather and swell, and we knew the weather window was really tight."

Hancock still hopes to get onto the island in the coming weeks and beat the previous solo stay record of 40 days set by SAS vet Tom McClean in 1985 and the 42-day record set by three Greenpeace protesters in 1997.

However, the rougher weather of late summer may scupper his plans to get off the island at the end of his stay if the adventure is delayed for much longer.

Ireland, the UK, Denmark and Iceland all lay claim to the disputed island northeast of the Donegal coast, which is 31m across at its widest point.

Published in Coastal Notes

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.