A recent meeting of the Northern California Section of The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers was held at the Engineers Club in San Francisco.
The Section's Annual T. Douglas MacMullen Award was presented during the business portion of the meeting to Irene Halpern, wife of past chairman Stephen Halpern. The award is named after the late T. Douglas MacMullen, West Coast correspondent for Marine Engineering/Log magazine, who suggested that the spouse of the Section chairman should be recognized by a special award for her patience and understanding during his tenure.
The technical portion of the program consisted of a paper by Mark R. Buetzow of Chevron Shipping Company titled "Dejumboizing of Four 212,000-dwt VLCC's to 150,000 dwt." Between January and October 1980, the tanker D.L. Bower and three sister vessels were shortened by removing 101 feet of parallel midbody from each. Various other modifications were carried out to meet current safety and pollution control regulations as well. The vessels are now in service between Indonesia and the U.S. West Coast.
Economic and engineering considerations that led to the conversions as an alternative to purchase of new vessels were described in the paper. The paper also gave characteristics of the vessels before and after conversion, and details of how the conversion was accomplished. The presentation was illustrated with slides showing the shortening process, and was followed by an extensive discussion.