Design Project

Hi, I’m a final year transport design student at the University of Huddersfield. For my Final Major Project, I’m going to do some sort of marine/sea/water based vehicle and I am trying to find out various peoples opinions and ideas on which direction to go in.

Preferably, I’m trying to find new markets or just something new and interesting to do. If anybody has any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. It doesn’t matter how crazy they are, in fact the crazier the better.

Thanks.

 

How about a large catamaran for sightseeing. It will have a long tube with windows that can be submerged for people to go down and see reefs and sealife.

 

Thats exactly the sort of input I need. Any further ideas welcome.

Thanks.

 

Cantainer Lander

There are many places in the world that do not have natural harbors and importing and exporting materials is very costly since it must be flown in or trucked great distances to a port.

How about a vessel that could meet a containerized cargo ship offshore, receive a large ISO shipping container and then land on an undeveloped beach. It would need to be operable and maintainable by the local work force and economical to operate. For example, a US Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) would perform this task extremely well, but it requires a highly skilled staff to maintain the 4 turbine engines.

Regards;
Mike Schooley

 

You might try, thinking along the lines of Portager's post, picking a location, a maximum load, and designing something specifically for that application. i seem to remember doing a landing craft/cargo boat for the Gilbert and Ellis Islands at Southampton as a design project.
Find a chart of your chosen location, look up wavr and wind statistics, and get started - you don't have much time! ;-))
Steve

 

Have you thought of designing a new type of life-raft?

How bout a deck-table with the inflatable raft on the underside - or a couch-system installed in yachts that can be removed and inflated into a raft? A dingy that can be turned into a super-safe, covered inflatable raft with the pull of one lever?

Would go down well if you later seek employment with the marine safety companies. Seems 'on theme' with marine transportation.

Mark

 

Ferries

Urban ferries are always an interesting area, especially because of their interactions with other modes:

Look at:

http://www.well.com/user/pk/waterfront

http://www.watertransit.org

http://www.sname.org/committees/tech_ops/O36/activity.html

http://chesapeakefastferrycoalition.org/about.php

One very interesting ferry is the Sea Bus in Vancouver. There are also numerous transport policy sites that might have some interest for this topic.

Another related topic is short coasting transport to relive congestion on roads due to trucks in North America.

 

Just first thoughts - A beach quad bike that has an intergral jet ski - as a kind of "take off " part, but utilising the same drive train. also think do beach vehicles have to run on wheels? - ice/skidoos run on a conveyer belt.............

How about utilising human power more effectively than oars - a more advanced / efficient pedlo ?

Think about how people get to their boats on their moorings, do they have to use a heavy / inconvenient / expensive / large /etc rowing dinghy?

I've just graduated from Product Design engineering at Glasgow School of Art - my advice is just get sketching now, not soon, now. You will never have enough time, so use every second.... and most of all best of luck - believe in the power of caffene and cold showers!!!!!

Stop looking for more answers - you're not sketching yet!!!

 

jawad