Interesting Old Equipment, Projects & Work Places

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 4bee

Thank you for another great episode in your life, OF. (or should I refer to you as Richard now?)

Always more interesting when posts contain Images & this one certainly does that with bells on.:TakeABow::TakeABow:

---

No, I am not Richard. He may have a point about what the Sultan does or does not do, but in the many times that I have been to Brunei, including more recent yeas, I have never had a problem, or witnessed any disgruntled locals. Back in the 1970,s I seriously considered moving there.
The infrastructure all works, their religion is not forced onto anyone, all of the population is taken care of with good medical facilities and nobody goes hungry. For those that do work, the retirement age is, I believe, 55 years old and the locals are taken care of by the state when they retire.

If he were to write some of the same stuff about what goes on in some middle eastern potentates, then I would agree!

Oil Rig Tenders

Another call-out:

I think that my ex-wife by now may have been starting to think that "Lady Sarah" was just a
non de plume for some foreign girlfriend!

A phone call again: "Can you go to Brunei and have a look at the bow thruster on Lady Sarah"? "After a slight contact with a rig, it is not working"!

I am pretty sure that I was at home at the time, but cannot really remember. Wherever I was it involved a flight via Singapore and on to Brunei.

On board Lady Sarah I found out just what had occurred. They had "clipped" a rig while manoeuvring alongside, and there was a small "gash" in the hull right on the waterline on the starboard bow. Most of the type of rigs used there at the time have anchor racks, usually referred to as "cow catchers", that protrude out from the rig. It was very fortunate that the rig must have been floating at its transit height at the time, because if at operating depth the anchor rack would have been well below the water line and the damage could have been much lower down on the hull of the tender, leading to complete flooding.

The bow thruster propeller of course, is mounted in a flooded "tunnel" very close to, and part of, the bottom of the hull. This one was driven by an AC electric motor with an extended shaft mounted in a watertight enclosure directly above the tunnel and inside the hull of the vessel, the top of the enclosure being about deck level with just a small coaming round it. The "watertight" enclosure had a hinged cover over it which opened into the cargo space adjacent to where both the dry stores, and the refrigerated cold rooms were. This space was air conditioned, and it was common practice to keep the hinged cover open to assist in cooling the thruster motor.

As it happened the small "gash", right on the waterline, had allowed what was probably only a small amount of sea water to enter the hull, squirt across about a 1 or 2 metre space, and enter straight into the motor! The motor, around 250 hp, was just a drip proof frame vertically mounted with open cooling air vents around the upper sides of the stator frame.

It did not need me to see what had happened to the windings! There must have also been a good sized "bang" when it happened, but as the crew would have all been nowhere in the vicinity, and otherwise engaged, nobody was aware of it until they tried to use the bow thruster.

The crew had been able to repair the small damage to the hull by ballasting the ship over a bit and welding up the gash once it was clear of the water.

There was a hatch on the foredeck above the area used to load stores that was also big enough for the electric motor to pass through. It was no easy job to remove such a big heavy motor, but the crew all dug in and helped. We had shipping agents there and they arranged for a mobile crane to get it up and out through the hatch.

Then the fun started! I preferred to leave the motor assembled, as it had to go to Singapore to be rewound, but all that they had for transport was an old 4WD Toyota ute, and after having the front wheels lift off the ground when we attempted to load it on its back, a rethink was urgently required!

In one corner of an old warehouse right on the wharf an old Indian gentleman had a small electrical workshop. "I am telling you good Sir; I am fixing electric motor vely long time"!
"I can rewinding motor for you hurry up"!

He did have some rewinding gear there and a small oven, but no matter how enthusiastic he was this job was simply too much for a small shop. What he didn’t know was that I had served my time in a rewinding business and had some idea of what was involved.

So, to compromise, I asked him if he would strip it down in his shop so that I could then take just the stator to Singapore for rewinding. "Oh, vely good Sir, I am doing it"!

I don’t recall stripping it down, or having a box made for it, but the photo shows it in a box being loaded on to a passenger aircraft, which had to be in Brunei, as I was allowed on to the apron. I am also not sure what aircraft it was, but I do recall spending most of the flight up in the cockpit, as the two English pilots were intrigued by what I was doing! They were also more than a bit interested in just what the hell it was in the heavy box weighing down the arse end of their plane!

I think that by that time we had an office in Singapore and an apartment, so it was an easy matter to arrange repairs. I seem to recall that it was a Westinghouse facility as I had a contact in their workshop. I remember going to the repair shop a couple of times to check on the progress, but I do not recall taking the hulking great bloody thing back to Brunei.

I helped the old Indian re-assemble the motor, and he MAY have helped me putting it back on to Lady Sarah. Whatever happened, it must have been a success, because I kept on getting more bloody call-outs!

Just for 4bee: I have managed to find couple of photos:

Attachment 163299

Glad that you are back Old Farang.

15 days between stories , and I was getting withdrawal symptoms .

Indeed sir, I trust the old Indian was a happy man to assist


Dave

A safe bet that this time around the Stator would have been flooded with Varnish, for the just in case scenario of course.[bigrolf] Thanks OF, I believe I even understood all the names of the equipment & of the rig. I did read Percy F Westerman you know.[smilebigeye]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hogarthde

Glad that you are back Old Farang.

15 days between stories , and I was getting withdrawal symptoms .

Indeed sir, I trust the old Indian was a happy man to assist


Dave

---

4bee was the problem Dave! I had to find some photos for him or he would start sulking! [bigrolf]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Old Farang

4bee was the problem Dave! I had to find some photos for him or he would start sulking! [bigrolf]

---

4bee again! [bighmmm]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Old Farang

4bee was the problem Dave! I had to find some photos for him or he would start sulking! [bigrolf]

---

Oh no it wasn't, I don't sulk. Well not on here. [bigrolf] If one is going to post in a thread about a life experience then it should be as informative as possible. Images included. Or don't bother.[smilebigeye] C'mon fess up, you lost the buggers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by V8Ian

4bee again! [bighmmm]

---

I live quite close to 4 bee, well in Aussie terms,.......so perhaps I will sneak up one night and cut his phone line; he will then blame the Frenchman next door, the cops will come, lock him up and peace will reign.

dave 😼

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hogarthde

I live quite close to 4 bee, well in Aussie terms,.......so perhaps I will sneak up one night and cut his phone line; he will then blame the Frenchman next door, the cops will come, lock him up and peace will reign.

dave 😼

---

You'll be lucky Dave, my phone connection is at Lenswood somewhere on an unknown hilltop. Well, NBN know where it is but I don't.

Speaking of Frenchmen. Guess who knocked on the back door a couple of days ago? Carn, you never will so I'll tell you.

Voila! The Frenchman, handing me a bottle of 2015 Tapanappa/Coonawarra Cab Sav Red to apologise for any inconvenience that may have been created by the blokes developing his new vineyard. Hardly knew they were there most of the time but I didn't tell him that.

At first, looking through the security door I thought it was the TNT Delivery bloke, as they do look alike at 20' but thought '' 'ello what is he giving me a bottle of wine for, I hope he hasn't ****ed up my delivery already".

With enemies like that who needs Friends?[bigrolf]

Then the Franc dropped. As it happened Mr TNT called later & he hadn't.[smilebigeye]

Then the Franc dropped.😂😂