Page 51: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2003)

Canada

Two generations of naval architects — Robert Allan Sr. (left), and Robert Allan, Jr. — when ves- sel design consisted of a simple pen to paper sketch. The accompanying, photo was originally part of an article on the firm that appeared in the local paper — Vancouver Province — in 1956.

Ltd has been in the international market place for design services since the 1960s, but in general only in limited quantities. We had a small joint-venture operation in Singapore in the late 1970s, but closed that down when my father died, which also happened to coincide with a major global downturn in ship- building activity. However, in the past five years the Internet and related email technology has made it possible for us to provide design support to shipyards around the world almost instantaneous- ly. Instead of sending drawings by post or by courier, now almost every day we are transmitting drawings to shipyards in every corner of the world. Almost 90 percent of our business is outside

Canada, and more than 70 percent is outside North America.

MR/EN: Discuss the one vessel, the one project, from which you have derived the most personal or profes- sional satisfaction?

RA: A tough choice, but that would have to be ice-breaking Offshore supply vessels "Ikaluk" and "Miscaroo," (see photo on page 50) designed for Gulf

Canada resources Inc in 1981. We won this contract just when my father was diagnosed with cancer, and he died shortly thereafter. It thus fell to me to deal with this very major project at a fairly tender age in my professional career. There was nothing like these vessels in the world at the time: Arctic Class IV, 15,000 bhp, (80 m) anchor-handling supply vessels. We developed a very unique design based on some prior experience with much small- er ice-class OSV's, and a lot of intuition. One vessel was built in

Vancouver, and the other was built in Japan. Dealing with the

Japanese Shipyard (NKK's-

Tsurumi Yard) was an incredible learning experience for me, to see how well organized and efficient every aspect of their operation was. In the planning stages I would go to Japan for a week at a time with our Electrical Engineer and Gulfs Project Manager, and I had to meet alone with team after team of the shipyard engineering groups to resolve every detail of the ship, for hull form, steel, out- fitting, piping and machinery. It was extremely challenging, but also extremely rewarding to see those ships take shape. In the final analysis these two ships have been extremely capable vessels, proving to be extremely capable ice-breakers and anchor-handlers. They are currently working in the offshore

Sakhalin project under Smit's flag.

MR/EN: What do you count as your top three or four professional accom- plishments?

RA: Managing to stay in business for all these years would be one (!), with the attendant growth of our business into an internationally recognized design firm a close second. However I could not have achieved any of this success without the incredible support of an exceptionally professional and capable staff. It is real- ly important to emphasize how much a team effort this business is: I have two incredibly capable and talented lieu- tenants in Hans Muhlert (32 years at

RAL) and Ken Harford (14 years), who are responsible for the day-to-day oper- ation of the design office. I am also indebted to Carol Nilson (31 years) who as our office manager keeps every aspect of our personnel and financial dealings running smoothly. With the support of these three and the many other profes- sional staff here, I am able to concen- trate primarily on the further develop- ment of the business. Technically, I think my major accomplishment has been in the field of high-performance tug design. RAL has been fortunate to have a recent long run at developing some of the best performing tugs afloat.

We have done this by thinking "outside the box," performing applied research to tug performance, and developing hull forms that take maximum advantage of the modern omni-directional propulsion systems used, rather than simply emulat- ing old twin-screw hull forms. We cur- rently have more than 25 tugs under design development or under construc- tion at various locations around the world, some of which will be among the most technically advanced tugs afloat for many years to come. I have also committed to writing numerous papers on the subject of tug design and per- formance, with the objective of sharing some of what we have learned with the next generation of naval architects.

Finally, in terms of unique project accomplishments, I rank the new Los

Angeles fireboat as one of my career highlights, (See related story next page). 1 don't often have the chance these days to get deeply involved in the / Marine Deck Hardware A t and Equipment

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May 2003 51