Watching its weight: the Chicago fireboat

The new fireboat will be used to respond to firefighting, rescue, hazmat decontamination, dive support operations, and other waterway related issues.

It had to be fast, be able to break ice, had to get under Chicago bridges and needed a 7’6” draft. The combination of a very shallow operating draft and an equally limiting air draft presented a significant design challenge, especially regarding weight estimation: if the vessel was too heavy it would scrape the bottom of the shallow river; if it was too light it would hit the numerous low bridges that grace the Chicago River.

ShipConstructor‘s automatic weight and CG calculation provided the most up-to-date and accurate information during the detail design process. Continuous access and knowledge of weight and CG allowed Robert Allen to optimize design as well as generate an accurate final result.

The ability to calculate up to date weight and center of gravity during any stage of project development and the ability to run reports for a section or an entire ship is an advantage of ShipConstructor over plain AutoCAD. ShipConstructor is an Autodesk based application specifically designed for shipbuilding.