Fifteen years ago we designed some floating breakwater pontoons for the Falmouth Harbour Commissioners visitors' marina. This floating breakwater has withstood many storms in the intervening years and its sterling service is generally taken for granted. However on the 14 May a particularly fierce squall coincided with the presence of several vessels from the OGA Round Britain Challenge fleet being berthed on the pontoons; Ben Collins aboard 'Syene' has recorded the experience in his blog entry complete with a graphic digital illustration of the event. sailing-by.org.uk

Further details of these pontoons can be found here

In 1888 Gordon Rankine's great grandfather Robert White set up his consulting engineering practice; he was later joined by John Wolfe Barry and then by his two sons, Colin White and Bruce White (later Sir Bruce White, Gordon's grandfather). Mothballed during the second World War the firm was re-established in 1950 as Sir Bruce White Wolfe Barry and Partners.

Sir Bruce invited Allan Beckett to join the firm following their military service together on the Mulberry Harbours. Made a partner in 1953 Allan Beckett went on to become senior partner following Sir Bruce's death. In 1985 Allan Beckett was joined by his son Tim Beckett and Gordon Rankine under the new name Beckett Rankine. These two families have now lead the practice continuously for 125 years.

Coincidentally 1888 was also the year that the yacht Bonita was built by the renowned boat-builder William Crossfield at his yard at Arnside in Cumbria. While most of Britain's coastal fishing fleets owed their designs to evolution to meet local conditions the Morcambe Bay prawners were different in that they were conceived and designed by one man, William Crossfield; although later other builders adapted his concept. Morcambe Bay prawners, also called Lancashire nobbies, are easily recognised by their elliptical sterns, spoon bows, relatively wide beam and shallow draft. Mostly William, and later his sons, produced fishing vessels - the famous prawners, but he also produced tourist pleasure boats called Bay Boats and a few gentlemen's yachts. Bonita was built as a yacht and uniquely amongst the Lancashire nobbies she has a distinctive clipper bow.

Allan Beckett purchased Bonita in 1936 and she has been in the Beckett family ever since. This summer she is taking part in the OGA's 50th Anniversary Round Britain Challenge which starts from the Hamble on 4 May 2013. At 125 years old she is the oldest vessel in the Challenge fleet. As we share our 125 years of history Beckett Rankine is sponsoring Bonita's trip with some smart crew outfits and technical support. Bonita is blogging as she goes and commenting upon some of the firm's UK projects as she encounters them. As her itinerary is weather dependent we don't know which of our projects will get a mention.

For the duration of the circumnavigation we will be providing a constant link to Bonita's blog and her tracker here.

The Round Britain Challenge fleet is raising funds for the RNLI as it goes so if you enjoy following Bonita's progress you can make a donation here.

Shieldaig is a small rural community in Wester Ross, Scottish Highlands. Although it only has around 100 permanent residents the community has a very active Sports Association which engaged Beckett Rankine to prepare designs and obtain consents for an all tide berthing pontoon at their remote and stunningly beautiful site. We also managed the tender process and certification of the installation. The pontoon is designed to not only serve the local fishing fleet but also local leisure users and visiting yachts.

The appointed contractor for the works was Varis Engineering who proposed their heavy duty pontoon system with its galvanised steel frame and hard wearing polyethylene floats. The floats are filled with polystyrene beads which are steam injected to form a solid mass to provide buoyant reserve. The main walkway is 52m long and fitted with grounding legs. The pontoon has a 'T' head for berthing which is 11.5m long by 3m wide. The pontoon decking is a GRP mesh which has durable non-slip properties for a marine environment. The pontoons are moored with an array of chain moorings connected to embedment anchors providing a stable platform in a wide range of conditions and uses.

The official opening of the pontoon is due on 29 June 2013 although such is its popularity that it is already being well used.

This year Beckett Rankine sponsored the Young Consultant of the Year category of the British Expertise International Awards. The award recognises the young professional (under 35) who has shown outstanding achievement working on an overseas initiative within the last twelve months, and who has developed a depth of understanding, awareness and interpretation of local community needs.

A celebration dinner was held on March 7th at the Cumberland Hotel in central London where Lord Marland, Minster of Trade and Investment, made the keynote address to over 200 guests from the professional services sector. Beckett Rankine's Tim Beckett and Gordon Rankine were both present and were delighted that Charlie Goldsmith of Charlie Goldsmith Associates won the Young Consultant of the Year award.

Charlie is a worthy winner having led the delivery of South Sudan's Electronic Payroll System, which has become a foundation of reform in the country's public sector. He has also been at the forefront of major programmes in South Sudan and Sierra Leone dealing with post-conflict public administration and technology for development. He has also been responsible for the design and implementation of an innovative six-year girls’ education programme in South Sudan which has the potential to deliver life changing improvements for women in Sudan.

The photo shows Gordon Rankine presenting the award to Charlie Goldsmith assisted, on the left of the photo, by His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester who is the British Expertise President, and the BBC's Edward Stourton who was the Master of Ceremonies.

Work has started on reconstruction of the main Wharf Road at Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas container terminal to provide an improved running surface for the port's heavy duty traffic and a reduced requirement for maintenance. The new surface will be block paving on a base course of cement bound material. Additional drainage is being installed to improve the run-off from tropical downpours that are frequent in the rainy season.

Beckett Rankine's site team is working with local consultant ATZ to supervise the construction work which is scheduled to be on site for 18 months. Holding the record for the world's fastest growing port following its opening in 1999 PTP is today one of the world's busiest container ports. All the repaving work has to be undertaken around the cargo handling operations with minimum interference. Planning also requires interface with other construction contracts currently being undertaken to further enlarge the port.

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With Venice once again in the news due to flooding (www.dailymail.co.uk) a group of University of Surrey engineering students could have identified the solution.

Each year the University sets its final year MSc engineering students a Multi Disciplinary Design Project (MDDP). The students work in groups of six and spend four months on the project, there are 20 groups in all. The project briefs are set by ten of the university's Visiting Professors and this year Professor Tim Beckett set his two groups the task of investigating the feasibility of raising the city of Venice permanently by one metre. Needless to say the raising had to be done gently and evenly so as to minimise the risk of damage to buildings or danger to inhabitants.

While Tim had some idea how the raising of Venice might be achieved the students avidly researched the issues and were soon raising technical queries that tested Tim's ability to guide them. Fortunately the University provided two staff experts to help in the shape of Dr Marcus Matthews and Tony Thorne.

Pleasingly both groups determined that raising Venice by a metre is not only a practical proposition but is also likely to be an economic solution. They went on to identify the further work and testing that would be needed to prove their techniques prior to it being used on La Serenissima herself. In addition to producing a report on their proposals each group had to make a presentation of their results and prepare a poster summarising their work. To Tim's delight one of his two teams won the Atkins prize for the best presentation; the photo shows the prize winning team with their trophy. From left: Tony Thorne, Dr Marcus Matthews, Sidong Ma, Oliver Currie, Ana da Silva, Emma Bruty, Prof Tim Beckett, Nick Adebanjo and Richard Archer.

While Venice was chosen for the project because of its very clear and high profile need similar techniques could be suitable for general raising of valuable low lying areas or structures such as flood defences. There will be many advantages in trialling the system in areas that do not have the density of fragile historic buildings that are present in Venice.

After an exceptionally short project timeframe of only eight weeks, Angola LNG's new escort tug berths have now been completed.

Designed by Beckett Rankine for a Dredging International and CTOW joint venture, the 390 metres of berthing space is needed for the new temporary Marine Operations Base at Kwanda near Soyo at the mouth of the Congo River. Dredging International and CTOW procured and constructed the floating berths for Angola LNG.

The berths have been designed to accommodate five of Svitzer's large escort tugs which have 1,000t displacement and 85t bollard pull, together with up to eight other smaller support craft. The berths are fully serviced with power, water and sewage connections. Due to the urgent need for the berths three large pontoons were sourced and modified in Europe and Nigeria to suit their new role. The pontoons were towed to site loaded with the access bridges and other ancillary equipment so that only the piling, installation and commissioning had to be done on site.

Construction of the water tower is also advancing with the core foundation structure and steel reinforcements now in place, ready for casting.

Building work also continues on the shoreline where the rock armour for the revetment is now nearing completion.