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Displaying items by tag: Engineering

Following the recent acquisition of two Scottish based sites, Infratrata, owners of Belfast shipyard Harland & Wolff, is to open to prospective employees a careers open day.

The careers open day is to take place at H&W's (Methil) Forth of Fifth site this Thursday, 2nd June and aims to set a solid workforce foundation in preparation for its highly anticipated new contracts. (See related ESB offshore wind project story). 

It will provide an opportunity to meet and speak with existing Harland & Wolff employees who can share their experiences of working with the iconic brand.

The careers event day will run from 10am – 7.30pm, with prospective employees booking a time slot.

Prospective employees should register to attend here.

Published in Shipyards

There has been in recent years an explosion of public interest in historical photographs. As The Irish Times reports, the profusion of social media sites dedicated to the past, and cultural institutions such as the National Library and National Museum now regularly host exhibitions of historical photos.

Public companies have also recognised the importance of photographic archives. One Irish company now delving into its heritage is Dublin Port Company, whose archive dates back 300 years. It recently appointed a full-time heritage officer to oversee the company’s archive of photographs (including ships & dockers), engineering drawings, maps, charts and company records dating back 300 years.

A sizeable amount of the Dublin Port Company archive is made up of photographs from the late 19th century up to the late 20th century, including black and white glass plate negatives and colour transparencies. The majority are glass plates depicting site reports of engineering projects undertaken by the Dublin Port and Docks Board, such as the construction of Butt Bridge, completed for the 1932 Eucharistic Congress.

For more click here. On a related story, last month the DPC stepped in to preserve historic archives. 

Published in Dublin Port

#ISLAND NEWS - Cill Rónáin Harbour in the Aran Islands has been voted by the public as Best Engineering Project of the Year for 2012.

Silicon Republic reports on the announcement, made at the third Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards last Friday.

The harbour on Inis Mór is twice the size of Croke Park and was constructed from more than 77,000 of stone blocks from Connemara, a choice aimed at protecting the breakwater from erosion by the sea.

Its modern design is also the result of scale model testing by a UK-based hydro lab, while during construction the process was overseen by a marine mammal observer to ensure the disturbance to local marine wildlife was minimal.

The harbour was shortlisted along with other waterfront projects such as the Clonmel Food Relief Scheme, the Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre, the Michael O'Shaughnessy Bridge over the Eglinton Canal in Galway City, the north Co Dublin Waste Water Treatment Scheme and Titanic Belfast.

Silicon Republic has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Island News

Irish Sailing Classes and Association – There’s no shortage of one-design classes from which to choose and each gives its enthusiasts great competition, fun and camaraderie, writes Graham Smith in this review of the classes. 

One-design racing is where it all starts. It is, after all, where all the top sailors earned their stripes, battling away for line honours without a thought for a handicapper’s calculator wiping away a hard-fought victory!

Indeed, you could count on less than one hand the number of top Irish sailors who didn’t cut their teeth in a one-design dinghy! Just think of Cudmore, Barrington, Watson, Wilkins, Hennessy and Dix to name a few and you realise that they honed their skills in everything from Enterprises to Lasers and a lot in between.

At present count, there are a little over 30 one-design classes in Ireland, split almost evenly between dinghies and keelboats, a statistic which might raise a few eyebrows. They range from the long-established Mermaids, IDRA14s and Dragons to the newer additions like Fevas, Topaz and RS Elite. They all fill a particular need and give their owners and crews considerable enjoyment.

Many have attracted their World or European Championships to Irish waters over the years and while 2009 is notable for a lack of such events here, the following year will see the Etchells Worlds at Howth and perhaps a few other international regattas too.

In addition to the review, we asked each class to complete a questionnaire giving details of their fleet numbers, whether they were on a growth pattern or holding their own, so we could highlight those ‘on the up’ and those remaining static in terms of numbers. The older traditional designs, as you might imagine, fall into the latter category, although that’s not a negative!

CLASS REVIEW  The State of the Classes – League Table (as at February 2009)

S = Static; U = Up/growing

275     Optimist   U

200+   Laser   S

189     Mermaid   S

160     Flying Fifteen   S

130     RS Feva   U

115     Shannon One Design    U

100+   Mirror   S

100+   Topper   U

99       Topaz   U

94       Laser SB3   U

87       GP14   U

85       Squib   S

70       Fireball   S

70       Ruffian   S

60       J24   S

60       Shipman   S

52       Dragon   S

50       RS400/200   S

50       420    U

43       Multihulls    U

42       Dragon    S

40       Water Wags    U

40       Wayfarer    S

34       IDRA14    U

33       Puppeteer    U

28       Etchells    S

27       E-Boat    U

26       Glen    S

25       Enterprise    S

18       Sigma 33    S

18       Howth 17    U

13       RS Elite    U