IN WHAT WAS the tallest vessel to come up the Strait of Juan de Fuca in many years, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar — fortunately shortened to SBX-1 — is at her three-month home at Vigor Shipyards (formerly Todd Pacific) in Seattle.
The SBX, which took all day Tuesday to transit the Strait and Admiralty Inlet at 6 knots, is a radar system which resembles a giant golf ball sitting atop a floating platform.
It spends more than 300 days a year at sea on top of a modified semi-submersible, self-propelled oil-drilling vessel that is 240 feet wide, 390 feet long and 280 feet tall from the keel to the top of the radar.
It includes a power plant, bridge and control rooms, living quarters for about 100 personnel, storage areas and the infrastructure to support the radar.
SBX is operated by the Missile Defense Agency and is a key component of the missile defense shield that the military uses in the Asia-Pacific region to defend the United States and its allies against long-range missiles.
According to Chandra “Hollywood” McGoff of Washington Marine Repair, the topside ship repair operation on the Port Angeles waterfront that is also part of the Vigor Industrial family of companies, Washington has tradesman onboard the SBX platform who will be working on mechanical upgrades to the radar systems platform.
Hollywood said this is the second time in less than a year that Washington Marine has had personnel working on the SBX radar.
Last July, the Port Angeles office sent a dozen members of its work force to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to work on the SBX when she was moored at Ford Island for repairs.
SBX-1 will be in the Seattle shipyard for about three months for routine maintenance, upgrades to the radar system and to the power grid which will enable the behemoth to connect to shore power.
Additional modifications as well as maintenance and enhancements scheduled to be made to the thrusters are required so that the vessel will maintain its Certificate of Inspection that is issued by the American Bureau of Shipping.
A day later
The fifth annual Port Angeles Yacht Club Marine Swap originally scheduled for this coming Saturday has been moved back one day to Sunday, May 22.
Steve DeBiddle, the club’s commodore, said the swap meet was scheduled so that it would not be competing for space with the throngs of halibut fisherman using the boat launch at the west end of the Port Angeles Boat Haven.
The marine-oriented swap meet will be held from 8 a.m. to noon at the yacht club, 1305 Marine Drive.
Vendors have the option of renting an outside space for $10 or a spot inside the clubhouse for $15 to display and sell nautical treasures and memorabilia.
Boat safety inspections will be conducted in the parking lot by the North Olympic Sail and Power Squadron, whose members are empowered to affix a 2011 safety decal to compliant vessels.
Coffee, doughnuts and pancakes will be available in the clubhouse.
For more information or to reserve a space, phone Commodore Steve at 360-477-2406.
Off to Virginia
Last summer, Westport Shipyard in Port Angeles unveiled Global Response Cutter (GRC) 43, a 142-foot craft made of composite space-age materials that the shipyard built on spec to U.S. Coast Guard guidelines and incorporated modifications to make her adaptable to military and defense applications, port security and navies domestically and internationally.
GRC 43 took two years to design and build, and it heralded Westport’s plunge into the specialized field of defense and security vessels specifically constructed to patrol the world’s troubled waters and keep homelands safe and secure.
During the ensuing months, Westport hauled out the cutter a number of times as well as conducted countless sea trials as the company continued developing the prototype.
In fact, the last time the cutter was on the hard, I noticed that each rudder had a substantial amount of warp along their vertical plane.
Taylor Olsen, a naval architect with Westport, made a valiant attempt to explain to me the science behind the development of the rudders, but I immediately became mired in the bog known as computational fluid dynamics.
Suffice it to say that the computer-designed rudders and struts create efficiencies in the driveline, enhance the speed of the cutter and make for a smoother and quieter ride.
Last Wednesday morning, Mike Catania, one of the yacht captains for Westport, and a crew of five left Port Angeles bound for San Diego — the first leg of a journey that will put them into Virginia Beach, Va., to attend the Multi-Agency Craft Conference slated for June 14-16.
The conference is designed to bring the Department of Defense as well as other government agencies and the maritime community together to discuss common issues unique to boats and craft in their respective services.
This will be the first opportunity Westport will have to display GRC 43 on the East Coast.
Mike and the crew will then take the cutter to the Commercial Marine Expo in Norfolk, Va., which will take place June 22-23.
This two-day event is one of the largest marine trade shows held on the Eastern Seaboard.
It is specifically designed for the commercial operator who works on the water as well as agencies with an interest in public safety boats, homeland security and military vessels.
Back for more logs
Sun Ruby, a 580-foot log ship, will moor to the Port of Port Angeles’ T-Pier today and remain dockside until she gets under way for China on May 20.
This is the second time this year that Sun Ruby has been to Port Angeles for a load of logs.
This visit, she will be taking on about 5.5 million board feet of logs harvested from Merrill & Ring’s private lands in Western Washington.
The ship will be loaded from dockside and waterside by longshoremen working two shifts a day to ensure the timely loading and departure of the vessel Friday.
In for bunkers
Tesoro Petroleum on Tuesday bunkered Polar Endeavour, an 894-foot crude oil tanker, while the tanker was anchored in Port Angeles Harbor.
On Saturday, Tesoro had its refueling barge alongside British Courage, a 754-foot petroleum products carrier.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. E-mail dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.