Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
I'll have a couple of pints of the Black Stuff ordered and at the bar for ya Stokey and Tango. If we make any money on the INFA shares between now and then, i might even pay for them too, lol.
Stokey. Loadsa hotels to choose from in the city centre and just depends how much you wanna spend.
Premier Inn (Alfred St or Cathedral Qtr) - 50 ish p/n
Etap (Dublin Rd) 50 ish p/n
Europa Hotel 150 - 200 p/n
Merchant Hotel (top hotel in Belfast in my opinion) 300 ish p/n
Hopefully meet ya and a few of the other guys at the Belfast event.
You could be right Tango, lol. I wasnt just negative without providing ideas though. I'd did suggest that they could have a busy elves post some day. Maybe elves on a ship, or even better, elves working on a ship.
Si Derm, ya rascal ya. Guess though i invited that response with my choice of words though, lol.
*Note to self* - Re read any posts and the wording before posting, as Si may interpret things a little different having the mind he has :-)
Stokey. Re Appledore, they already have a bank of CVs from the recent 2 day jobs fair event there. From memory i believe they had 400 to 500 folk attend that event.
Re national press coverage and PR Chrisa, definitely it would help. I know it's just a simple thing and I've said it before, but I get increasingly peed off with the H & W Facebook page showing a feckin elf photo every day. You're a shipyard H & W ! ! Show us some pics of work you're doing ! ! Tell us what you're doing. Tell us about new starts. Tell us about an increasing work force ! Tell us how you're successfully fighting against Covid restrictions ! This social media facility is all coverage and could be very positive national coverage if utilised.
And yes, I've messaged H & W with my thoughts and elf frustration.
An advertisement for 'dirty hands' rather than 'white collars' (both terms said very respectfully) gets me a little more excited.
It's well and good advertising and bringing in project managers, estimators and all sorts of well dressed suity type folks as we have been, (and yes these roles are essential, very much valued and needed first ), but i now wanna see overalls and oily hands jobs. The more actively working overalls and oily hands jobs in INFA, the more money we're making. With skilled trades jobs being advertised for now, this could be a sign the suits have pulled off some work from the tenders already submitted.
If they're advertising for quite a few skilled trades for starts in the near future, my hunch is that it isn't for the Triumph ship, possible FSS work or for big floaty boat build work, as both of these could be 6 months from needing a tool being lifted. It's not also for maintenance type ferry works either as they have an adequate workforce for this already.
Here's my question. Could there be some renewables works in the offing for Appledore and Belfast ? The big wurley windmills are coming i tells ya (well i hope anyway).
Well spotted stokey. I sent an email to the Marine Institute last week asking if they were able to provide some information on the works being completed on Celtic Explorer, and if they could either email back or even provide this information on their website. If I get any response I'll pop it on the page here.
Stokey, The Welders (as its known locally here) is a social club that was was started 50 odd years ago by guys that worked in the Yard at that time. It's not owned or operated by INFA in any way.
There's a Facebook group called 'Harland & Wolff Welders Events' where there's updates on anything club related including the news item from the Belfast Telegraph.
Soz Stokey. I've now looked again at your site map and i can see the situation now. It's not the actual Main dock gate that moves along the length of the dock to split it, but these intermediate gates that split it up and the main dock gate never moves. My question in hindsight now wasn't a relevent one, lol. Soz to any poor folk that have read the length of my previous few messages. Ta again Stokey.
Thanks for your reply Stokey. The SRQ could comfortably take 2 or 3 ships (that's where the 2 Viking sisters sat for so long) but the SRQ is simply dockside facilities and isn't a dry dock there.
I'm aware the main dock gate can be moved to have a dry and wet dock facility either side of it, but what i'm wondering is while they have one dry dock, can they use this other dock length as a wet or dry dock facility or only a wet dock ? I'm hoping my question is making sense (I've only had one glass of red so far tonight, lol). To me they would need 2 dock gates for this purpose, or is it this intermediate gate you mention that enables this to happen. Tia for any responses.
H & W with both shipyards have 3 dry docks. There's the Main Building Dock (556 x 93m) and Belfast Dry Dock (335 x 50m) in Belfast, as well as the Appledore covered dry dock (119m long).
Here's my thinking. If we do get the Triumph contract, that's a 200m long ship and will take up one of the Belfast dry docks for 2 to 3 years. Lets say for sake of argument it goes to the 335 metre dry dock. If we also then get a new build from one of the government contracts, this is also going to require around 200 metres of dry dock longer term, which is no probs having the second dock in Belfast.
Now if INFA had both those contracts that would be fantastic and our share price should be in the several pounds arena and we'd all be happy, but Im greedy, and here's my thinking. With both Belfast dry docks out of action we only have the 119metre Appledore dry dock left. This dock wouldn't be suitable for the servicing of ferry work or ships of any considerable size.
Getting eventually to my question. The Belfast Building dock is 556 metres however the dock gate that closes off this 556 metres is moveable, so effectively it can be closed off at different lengths, ie half this length if required.
My thoughts are if there was a second dock gate on this dock, they could then close off say 300 metres of dry dock for the longer term build of a few years and then have the remaining 250 metre dock length as an additional working dry dock to take regular shorter term work in and out as required. This could be the ferry work or cruise ship work.
What I'm wondering is would INFA consider a second dock gate on the main dock for this purpose or at 93 metres wide would an additional dock gate be cost preventative to even consider ?
Any thoughts anyone ?
Mrs TTNY is has decided she's playing Christmas CDs today, and every day up to Christmas too. I've now already had my fill of Jingly Bells, Rudolph and blooming White Christmas's.
For some respite, I've therefore locked myself in the office here and decided to have a wee surf online. First port of call. Facebook. Then onto the Harland and Wolff FB page for a nosey and, ahhhhhhhh ! ! My Bah Humbugness has just went up a scale. The last 10 or 11 posts H & W have put on since the start of December are of blooming elves, shelves and flashy Christmas lights.
Come on H & W, let's have some ship pics or pics of some work related activity too. We're all busting to know what the guys on the shopfloor are working on !
Mr Poots was taken to hospital at the weekend for emergency surgery for appendix removal. Thankfully he's doing well and making a good recovery.
The Economy minister, Diane Dodds, is standing in for him in the meantime for DAERA duties. Maybe Diane can shift the folk in DAERA who are dithering with this marine license. With her ministerial interest being the economy she'll want the jobs boost that INFA will be provide on granting of the ML.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55213794
Stokey. From the Harbour site It appears as if Stena is coming out of the BDD on 7th to go to the SRQ. It's being joined by Celtic Explorer on the SRQ on 10th, then Celtic Explorer is going into the BDD on the 11th.
There's loads of room on the SRQ for both of these. It's the SRQ where the 2 Viking Cruise ships sat.
Celtic Explorer is an interesting visitor to H & W. On size, it's only 65metres, so somewhat smaller than the usual ships coming in for work. It however appears to be quite an advanced technical ship with very specialised equipment onboard for research work. There's a short video below on Celtic Explorer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrJgHVxc1yE
Stokey. Yep it's the 65m Celtic Explorer coming into the BDD on the 11th. It's just appeared now on the Harbour bookings page this morning. It looks like it's coming to the SRQ the day before and then into BDD on the 11th. It's a marine fisheries boat that mainly does fisheries research work.
Yeah Stokey, the Harbour page only shows 7 days ahead. I'll keep an eye out on the site over the next few days too.
Hi Stokey. At 335 m long, yes, It could theoretically take 2 ships depending on size of them. If Stena Europe is is dry docked however they're not going to refill it, then bring another ship in, then empty the dock again.
As for Stena Europe showing as in until 31/12/2020, I wouldn't take this as gospel. I've noticed Belfast Harbour site at times showing this date as a default when there's been an uncertain departure date.
I could be wrong about another ship coming in on 11th or 12th December. It was a shipping enthusiast on another site telling me in pm that there was an Irish Fisheries type vessel coming to H & W at this time, and it's going to the BDD. I'm always wary about sharing hearsay information like this on the page as it is just that for me, hearsay. I wouldn't want anyone taking this as fact hence my caveat about being not sure if this is correct or not. I can't see anything in the Belfast Harbour site about this possible arrival at BDD, but my chum isn't often wrong in the titbits of info he throws me.
I seen the same post about Stena Europe possibly getting deck replacement work and being laid up for up to 8 weeks for this but I haven't seen this confirmed however anywhere.
Stena Europe is in the BDD at the moment however i'm told (but not sure how accurate or reliable this is though) that another vessel is expected to come into the Belfast Dry Dock on 11th or 12th December. This could ask the question is Europe not now getting this deck work done or have H & W simply got every hand on the job and completed what was thought to be 6 to 8 weeks work done in what would be roughly 3 weeks ?
The other possibility is Stena Europe is moving to the bigger Building dock (BBD), however I wouldn't envisage this to be the case or they would have popped her in that dock in the first place surely ?
Cheers Si. I was getting my hopes up there, lol.
On the H & W website re Appledore https://www.harland-wolff.com/appledore/ it states :-
The site features a 119m long covered drydock as part of the main building yard as well as the adjacent repair, commissioning and outfitting quays and a facility in Newquay.
Maybe I've just previously missed it but i can't recall ever reading about Infa / H &W having any facility in Newquay (70 odd miles from Appledore). Can anyone enlighten me on what this 'Newquay facility' is ?