Maritime Engineering is often seen as one of the smaller engineering discipline and yet it support one of the most important sectors of the UK economy [Maritime 2050: Navigating the future, UK Dept for Transport].  With seas and oceans often out sight in our day-to-day lives it is often overlooked.

A recent study from the US indicates that it is worthwhile taking a closer look at the maritime disciplines of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.  These were rated as the best value for money degree, in a comparison to all other 162 fields of study considered. While we don’t have immediate access to similar study in the UK our experience is certainly that our graduates are always in strong demand.

Why is this?  As the recent government led Maritime 2050 report indicates it is vital to our prosperity and security. We rely on the oceans for our trade, for sustainable food and for an ever increasing part of our energy from marine renewables.  MaritimeUK is championing the sector which is:

Supporting over 1 million jobs and adding £46.1bn to our economy, maritime is responsible for facilitating 95% of UK global trade, worth over £500bn per year. The UK maritime workforce is 42% more productive than the average UK worker. Maritime makes a greater contribution to the UK economy than both rail and air combined

Naval Architects and Marine Engineers are vital to the success of the world’s ‘blue economy’. This could be the design of ships to carry cargo around the world, offshore wind and tidal devices to harvest green renewable energy , autonomous underwater and surface vehicles to explore the oceans , superyachts for leisure and racing yachts such as those for the America’s Cup. Many of our graduates can be found outside of design in the production and safe operation of these vessels, as data analysts or as brokers. They are embracing the digital revolution in Maritime Engineering, where AI, Machine Learning, carbon fibre composites, 3D additive manufacturing and autonomous systems are opening up careers in this growing sector.  

While it is good to see that Maritime Engineering provides financially rewarding careers it has always been the case that the engineering challenges are significant and are stimulating in their own right. Professional Naval Architects can trace their origins back to at least the Romans, with their associations of shipwrights. Today we need to face the challenge of decarbonisation, cleaning the oceans all while ensuring that in the future our use of its vast resources is sustainable. All of these will need a bright, committed and diverse next generation of Maritime Engineers –  please contact us if you would like to find out more.

Our Maritime Engineering degree programmes at Southampton are accredited by three leading professional engineering societies, Royal Institution of Naval Architects, RINA, Institute of Maritime Engineers, Scientists and Technologists. ImarEST and the Institution of Mechanical Engineering, IMechE.

As we consider how best to use autonomous systems in the maritime sector it becomes ever more important to consider the human factor in the design and safe operations of ships. Current third year ship science student Dhwani Oakley recently presented at the Royal Institution of Naval Architects(RINA) International Conference on Human Factors at RINA HQ in London.

The motivation for the conference as stated by RINA reflects the growing awareness of the importance of human factors within ship design. The work of naval architects and marine engineers directly influences the operability and safety of ships and seafarers and decisions made at the design stage influence human behaviour. Therefore an improved understanding of human factors and ergonomics by engineers can help us identify and ‘design out’ hazards which cause accident and injury.

The conference included discussion around a wide range of human factors topics including:

• The integration of human factors into the design process
• Practical applications of human factors engineering
• Improving habitability
• The design of navigation & control systems and onboard operational organisation and teamwork.
• The design for safety and performance

Dhwani delivered a presentation about the role of Class in human factors and the development of ergonomics guidance for safe access and egress, Dhwani’s work was carried out while working as an intern last summer with Lloyd’s Register’s (LR) Global Technology Centre. LR are also based on our University Boldrewood Innovation Campus (SO16 7QF)

The International 14 World Championships have just been completed in Perth Australia.  Ship Science graduate Tom Partington (2010) and his dad Andy were defending champions having clinched the title in 2018 in San Francisco.  They started the series well with a second and sixth in the first two races.  The windy conditions for races 3 and 4 resulted in damage to their bowsprit causing them to retire from both races.  This ended their defence of the title as only one race could be discarded.

However, not all was lost for Ship Science, Daniel Holman  who graduated from Ship Science in 2012 and his crew Alex Knight fought hard to the end of the regatta with wins in the final two races to secure second place.  The regatta was won by fellow British paring and multiple world champion Archie Massey and his crew Harvey Hillary.  Third place was taken by Neale Jones and Edward Fitzgerald to see all three podium places occupied by British boats.

The annual Yacht Racing Forum of 2019 took place in Bilbao, Spain during 25^th and 26^th of November. A host of key stakeholders participated including yacht designers, yacht builders, pro sailors, academics, event organizers and equipment manufacturers, all from the forefront of technology and the most important international yacht racing events such as America’s Cup, Ocean Race, Olympics, IMOCAs etc.

The University of Southampton represented at this very prestigious event by MSc student Mr. Menelaos Xanthis. He presented about work used for his MSc dissertation on “Keel failures:  A probabilistic structural reliability study using Monte Carlo simulation”. This project was conducted under the supervision of Dr James I.R. Blake and was presented in the session “New Talents in Yacht Design”.

Several topics of great interest were discussed during the forum. In the field of sailing management, the main topics where about managing events, races or sailing teams, but also about the future and evolution of sailing racing regulations.

In the design and technology field, the most prominent and recurring theme was the evolution of foiling. It was a common belief among the participants that foil size and importance will not stop to grow in the foreseeable future, and also because of the complexity of the system, electronics will be employed more frequently.  

              Of course, as in every other aspect of human activity, the topics of the environment and the climate were prominent. Of particular interest were the topics of environmentally friendly equipment including hulls, clothing etc, and especially the inability to produce recyclable hulls of high racing ability, but equally the impact that events and gear can have on the environment and how this can be mitigated.

It is also worth mentioning that as discussed in the meteorology and climate session, the changes in weather patterns are expected to impact heavily the ocean yacht racing events. Icebergs will appear more often and in areas where previously were not observed, and also the hurricane season will be less predictable, as will be the path of hurricanes. All these phenomena are expected to open new routes not previously accessible, but also potentially endanger participants in racing events.  

The forum concluded with the announcement of the Racing Yacht Forum of 2020 which will be hosted in Portsmouth.

How we deal with the seemingly endless tide of discarded plastics within our environment and in particular our oceans is an immediate challenge. Several teams of current Ship Science students participated in a competition organised by the Western joint branch of ImarEST and RINA. The challenge was to find a design solution that could cost-effectively collect and remove macro plastic from the ocean. University of Southampton teams were placed first and second. Diogo Figuiera Nunes, Alex Pardoe and Tom Kenwright proposed Oceanum Nova. A concept design for a fleet of catamarans that would act as mobile platforms for plastic removal. The USP of their design was the fact that it brought together many different designs that have already been tried and tested and were therefore confident that they would work.

We face many maritime engineering challenges with regard to dealing with the legacy of past generations as well as the challenges of how we reduce future ship emissions. Modules such as a our SESS6074 Marine Safety: risk, environment and law equip students for the wider challenges of the future.

Our Master of Engineering degree has been updated to reflect the future challenges we all face in engineering in the maritime environment. We now have six pahways reflecting the challenges of decarbonisation, increased autonomy and digitalisation.:

(i)Advanced Computational Engineering

(ii) Marine Engineering and Autonomy

(iii) Naval Architecture

(iv) International Naval Architecture

(v) Ocean Energy and Offshore Engineering

(vi) Yacht and High Performance Craft

In future posts we will explore something of the exciting aspects of each pathway at Southampton.

Ship Science graduate, Calum Healey was part of the crew of Pata Negra, a Lombard 46, which was competing in the RORC transatlantic race.  They finished second overall.

Callum conducted research into the relative performance of two centreboard designs for the Merlin Rocket for his final year dissertation.  He undertook tests at full scale in open water, recording data to determine the performance differences.

The video below shows an interview with the crew of Pata Negra having arrived safely in Grenada.