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Western Union Int'l To Market New MARISAT System A specially designed maritime satellite communications system is being marketed by Western Union International, Inc. (WUI), One WUI Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10004. The system, called MARISAT, was described by Roy K. Andres, WUI's vice president for planning, selected for reliability repeatability and lowest maintenance Rig built by: Marathon LeTourneau, Enterprises, Slidell. La. at a recent press conference held at the Whitehall Club in New York City. Developed by WUI in partner- ship with other communications organizations and with the back- ing of the U.S. Navy, MARISAT has been utilized on an introduc- tory service basis to shipping for the past year. Core of the system are three geostationary orbits 22,300 miles over the equator covering the At- lantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. systems The satellites provide contin- uous ultra-high-frequency com- munications to the U.S. Navy in all three oceans. Links to the Navy installations with the mainland U.S. are two large shore stations with 42-foot- diameter antennas, one each in Connecticut and California. A third will be in service in the Indian Ocean area later this year. Under the system, ships com- municate instantaneously, using a four-foot stabilized antenna beamed to the satellite which am- plifies the signal and repeats it to shore stations. Telex calls from ships are au- tomatically interconnected by a U.S. international record carrier to any Telex machine throughout the world. According to Mr. Andres, the system is available for $55,000 per complete unit, excluding in- stallation costs. It can also be ob- tained on a lease basis, he added. Skagit Corporation Appoints F.K. Weimann Fritz K. Weimann Fritz K. Weimann has been ap- pointed manager of long-range planning and product develop- ment, according to Skagit Corpo- ration's director of marketing, George B. Klos. Mr. Weimann will be responsi- ble for long-range planning with emphasis on new products, and the adaption and extension of Skagit's present offshore, marine, construction, and logging product lines. Prior to joining Skagit, Mr. Weimann had served as director of engineering at the Lorain Divi- sion of The Koehring Company. He had held many management positions during his 25 years with Lorain. Mr. Weimann was born in Ger- many and graduated from the Hamburg Engineering College, Hamburg, Germany, with a ma- jor in mechanical engineering. Skagit Corporation, Sedro- Woolley, Wash., a subsidiary of The Bendix Corporation, is a man- ufacturer of heavy machinery for the offshore, marine, construction, and logging industries. Maritime Approves CDS For Purchase Of Spare Tailshaft The Maritime Subsidy Board has approved construction-differ- ential subsidy (CDS) for the pur- chase of a spare tailshaft to sup- port four 89,700-deadweight-ton tankers built for the Third Group, Inc. The tailshaft will cost $52,500, of which the Government will pay $19,147. The tankers were built with CDS assistance by National Steel and Shipbuilding Corpora- tion, San Diego, Calif., at a cost of approximately $28 million each. The last vessel was delivered De- cember 30, 1976. "Mr. Si" rig, owned and operated by Fluor Drilling Service, Coral Division, New Orleans, La. Marine Division, Vicksburg, Mis. Photograph: Big River Balanced deck loading is vitally important on this "Jack-Up" type drilling rig - a factor strongly influenced by tank content and re- lated weight distribution. Equally important is a continuously ade- quate inventory of diesel fuel, lube oil, potable water and drilling water to service day-by-day operating requirements. Fourteen service storage tanks are built into the deck of the "Mr. Si" - an exploratory oil rig currently operating in the Gulf of Mexi- co - and each tank is continuously monitored by a Gems Tank Level Indicating System, selected and specified by the owners. Factors influencing Gems selection included reliability, repeatability (system accuracy consistently within 1/2" of liquid level), ease of installation and a demonstrably low need for maintenance. The Gems operating principle is ingeniously simple and trouble- free: a tubular transmitter, acting as a voltage divider, is traversed by a magnetic float, which rises and falls with liquid level and transmits continuous level information to a remote read-out meter (receiver). Transmitters can be furnished in a wide variety of mate- rials and configurations compatible with most media and the most difficult tank depths and profiles. Receivers are either dial or digital types, and secondary (slave) units are available if required. The "Mr. Si" installation employs 14 flange (carbon steel) mounted transmitters with stainless steel stems and Buna N floats. Multiple receivers are housed in a special table-top console designed and built by Gems to customer specifications. CLIR & DELAVAL TURBINE INC. GEMS SENSORS DIVISION M. Farmington, Connecticut 06032 mAIL ATTN. Mel Brown Please Send Free TLI Book To: NAME COMPANY ADDRESS . CITY STATE ZIP. Hydroplaning Bad news on a wet highway... good news in a Cutless rubber bearing Let a paper-thin film of water get between the road surface and your tires and you lose the road friction that lets you keep your car under control. Put a similar film of water between the propeller shaft of your boat and the tough, resilient Goodrich rubber of a Moffitt Cutless marine bearing and you practically eliminate friction that wastes valuable horsepower and fuel. The Moffitt "Water Wedge" design produces a "hydroplaning" film as the shaft turns. And maintains the film as long as the shaft rotates. Works in any kind of water... salt or fresh.. .clean or silt-filled. Needs no oil or grease that could lead to water contamination. And no seals to adjust and replace. Look out for highway hydroplaning. Look into the friction-free "hydroplaning" that makes a Moffitt bearing the cleanest, most trouble-free rubber marine bearing you can buy. Available in a full range of shaft diameters and load capacities. LUCIAN MOFFITT, INC. NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTORS P.O. Box 1415, AKRON, OHIO 44309 VOITH Maritime Reporter/Engineering News
