“THE SAIL’S MANAGER”
It was a great day for the STD XI students of Mushtifund Aryaan Higher Secondary School, when Chairman and Managing Director of Goa Shipyard Ltd, Mr. Shekhar Mital visited them on the 25th of July ’16 for an interactive session. Mr. Mital was warmly welcomed by the Director, Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudesai and was formally introduced by Mrs. Manali Varerkar, a faculty at the Institution.
In his very informative presentation, Mr. Mital spoke about the various requirements and technical demands his team works on to put a navy ship together. It is no cake walk to build a ship and that too a one that must withstand not only rough waters but also potential attacks and which has to be technically sound.
The students learnt from the presentation about the basic design spiral involved in the construction of a ship. Mr. Mital highlighted the steps involved in design of a ship or for that matter an aircraft, viz: the preliminary/ conceptual design which involves extensive model testing and the detail design. He stressed on the fact that the design of a ship is highly iterative and involves lot of compromise. There is something called the ‘Telescopic Design’ which considers the various changes going to take place technology wise and the ship is built accordingly as it takes minimum 5 to 6 years to construct a new ship. Mr. Mital also explained the conceptual, preliminary and the contract design.
The workings of a ship can be compared to that the of a car , said Mr. Mital to help the students understand better. The speed and fuel efficiency of a ship is measured in the same way as that of a car. The students were elated to learn new terminologies like the Star board side ( right side) and the Port side ( left side) and were intrigued to see the bird’s view of the plan of ship design process during the presentation. Mr. Mital explained about how and why the engines are placed in a particular way so as to tackle an unfortunate worst case scenario of drowning.
The interaction ended with the question and answer session which was entirely coordinated by the Director, Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudesai. Mr. Mital answered all the queries with ease and enthusiasm. The students thanked him for visiting them.
He motivated the students by telling them that life will never get easier, but one just gets stronger. His positive message sent a thrill of good energy amongst the students and gave them the confidence that they too will be able to “ Sail Through” the rough waters in life!
– Prepared by Hetal G.