Newcastle – Blyth Ports: Tall Ships, Universities & Subsea Engineering
16 May, 2018
Summer is fast approaching, which means its time to advertise our annual “away day” site visit. This year we have four short tours centred from the Newcastle University Marine Station in Port of Blyth. The tours are followed by food, refreshments and networking hosted by Port of Blyth.
Numbers for the tours are limited to 48 people (attendees will go on all the tours in rotation). Booking is therefore essential for this event
Tour A: Newcastle University Marine Propulsion Laboratory
Newcastle University has recently opened a new large scale marine technology lab in the Port of Blyth. The centrepiece of the facility is the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel – a propeller testing device originally housed on the university campus and now enhanced with upgraded capability for future R&D. This is co-located with several other innovative flumes and experimental test equipment for marine hydrodynamics research. The tour will explain the phenomena of hydrodynamic cavitation experiments, the historical connection to the North East (starting with Charles Parsons), and the future opportunities for research of novel marine propulsors, turbines, coatings and subsea devices.
Tour B: Blyth Tall Ship
Blyth Tall Ship is a pioneering project that sets out to recapture the spirit of adventure and global entrepreneurship that was employed in Blyth to discover the Antarctic land mass 200 years ago in a sailing ship called the Williams. The project aims to recreate the original voyage and conduct an expedition to celebrate the discovery of Antarctica. Our tour won’t quite reach Antarctica, but will visit the boat yard where a team of volunteers are currently restoring and refitting the tall ship. Be careful, you might end up signing up for a leg of the voyage!
Tour C: Royal IHC
A quick peek inside the Royal IHC facility in the Port of Blyth. The tour will act as a “show and tell” for some of the innovative subsea products currently in production.
Tour D: Newcastle University research vessel and port tour
Port of Blyth is buzzing right now, and what better way to see what’s going on than to get on a boat and tour the river! Weather permitting, groups will head out on the Newcastle University research vessel, the Princess Royal, and sail up to the top of the river and then back down to the breakwater. Although we don’t plan to have official tour guides on the boat, we figure there might be enough experts on board anyway to enlighten everyone about the exciting engineering currently spread along the port.
Post Tour: Food and networking with Port of Blyth
Locally sourced food together with refreshments from the Newcastle University student micro-brewery (Stu-Brew), followed by a talk and networking event hosted by Port of Blyth showcasing their exciting future plans for the port.