Keith Mackie
Consulting Coastal and Harbour Engineer
Significant Technical Papers
Please contact Keith Mackie for electronic copies of the full text of the following papers.
ISSUES IN DRY DOCKING
(in press)
SMALL MECHANICAL DRY DOCKING SYSTEMS
Dry docking is a field of engineering that is not well understood by most harbour engineers yet a thorough understanding is essential if efficient facilities are to be provided as part of a harbour infrastructure. This is particularly true of mechanical systems of dry docking, especially the slipway. It is these systems that are usually the most appropriate for small or remote facilities. BS 6349 Pt 3 1988 is particularly defective in this latter aspect. A sound understanding of the field requires a knowledge of the types of systems, the theory of their behaviour, the economics of dry docks and the particular problems peculiar to the field.
Fifth International Conference on Coastal and Port Engineering in Developing Countries, COPEDEC V, Cape Town, 1999
CORROSION IN MECHANICAL DRY DOCKING SYSTEMS
Corrosion is endemic in marine structures, particularly so in the steelwork and mechanical components of dry docking systems. Different dry docking systems also exhibit patterns of corrosion peculiar to each system - particuarly so for the suspension ropes of shiplifts and the rails of slipways. This paper discusses these peculiarities and procedures for controlling corrosion in dry docking systems.
14th International Corrosion Conference, Cape Town, 1999
DREDGING OF FISHING HARBOUR, WALVIS BAY
This paper describes the design of medium sized dredging works of ca 750 000 m3 in a small harbour and the successful project management of the works in 1989, using an international dredging contractor, by an agency which did not normally have contact with the international dredging industry.
The progress of this job was quite remarkable by normal construction standards for its speed, efficiency and quality.
ASCE, Dredging '94, Orlando, Florida
SOUTH AFRICAN SMALL HARBOURS – NEED AND REALITY
This paper explores the coastal environment of South Africa and its hostility to harbour development. It examines the need for small harbours, surveys the existing suite of small harbours and the history of the administration of these harbours. The paper concludes that there is an urgent need for a major review of the whole administration of the coast and of coastal development and offers some suggestions.
National Maritime Conference, Cape Town, 1991
THE DEBACLE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN FISHING HARBOURS
Coastal engineering does not take place in a vacuum. Even small harbours are major capital projects involving large expenditure of money. Coastal engineering cannot take place without appropriate institutions to raise the necessary funds and administer the completed works.
The fishing harbours of South Africa are a case in point where appropriate institutions came into being to construct the suite but failed to survive to administer it and maintain continued growth and replacement. This case study of the growth and subsequent collapse of appropriate institutions is relevant to the practice of coastal engineering everywhere.
Fifth International Conference on Coastal and Port Engineering in Developing Countries, COPEDEC V, Cape Town, 1999
THE ANOMALOUS NATURE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAST
Coastlines are naturally irregular and non-euclidean. They are fractal lines and the degree of irregularity is measured by the "fractal index". As a result coastlines behave quite differently to boundaries that are smooth euclidean shapes.
The South African coast has an exceptionally low fractal index. It can be described as the straightest coast in the world. It has the least amount of embayment, headlands, and lagoons of any coast anywhere. On the other hand, this is a high-energy coast which, coupled to the very low fractal index produces some of the finest surf bathing beaches in the world.
Since the rate of development of the South African coast seems to be increasing exponentially, there is an urgent need for a special, perhaps radical, approach to coastal development in South Africa if an environmental disaster is to be avoided.
SAICE Annual Congress, Durban, 1993
The following is a complete list of the technical papers published by Keith Mackie.
- Issues in Dry Docking – Shiplifts, Slipways, Keelblocks and Economics – 31st PIANC Congress, Estoril, 2006. (with R. Deane)(in press).
- Out of Water (unattributed) – Shipyear 2004, Official yearbook of the S.A. Inst. Marine Engineers & Naval Architects: Cape Town.
- The Practice of Dry Docking Ships – A series of five articles published in Dock and Harbour Authority, London: July-Dec 1999, vol 80 no 896-900; Jan/Feb 2000, vol 80 no 901; March/April 2000, vol 80 no 902; May/June 2000, vol 81 no 903.
- Corrosion in Mechanical Dry Docking Systems – 14th International Corrosion Congress, Cape Town, 1999
- The Debacle of the South African Fishing Harbours – A case study – Fifth International Conference on Coastal and Port Engineering in Developing Countries, Cape Town, 1999
- Small Mechanical Dry Docking Systems – Fifth International Conference on Coastal and Port Engineering in Developing Countries, Cape Town, 1999
- An Economic and Technical Assessment of the Hydraulic Transport of Phosphate Ore. Hydrotransport 13 – 13th International Conference on Slurry Handling & Pipeline Transport, Johannesburg Sept 1996 (with Dr A. Paterson)
- The Viskor System for the Painting of Marine Structures – Corrosion and Coatings S.A. Oct 1995
- Dredging of Fishing Harbour, Walvis Bay – ASCE, Dredging '94, Orlando, Florida, 1994
- The Anomalous Nature of the South African Coast and its Implications for the Coastal Environment – SAICE Annual Congress, Durban, 1993
- Low Cost Dry Docking for Remote Areas. Conference on Appropriate Technology for the Third World – Windhoek, 1992
- S A Small Harbours – Need and Reality – National Maritime Conference, Cape Town, 1991
- A survey of the interaction of City, Sea and Mountain at Cape Town and on the Cape Peninsula – 1st International Conference on Port Cities, Haifa, 1986
- A Coastal Engineering Assessment of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean – 1st International Conference on Port Cities, Haifa, 1986