CONVERSION FERRY KLAMATH INTO A FLOATING OFFICE

Project Summary

For the conversion of the 1924 build historic car ferry KLAMATH into a floating office, Argonautics Marine Engineering, Inc. provided a wide range of naval archtectural services to its new owner, Bay Area Counsil. Without any accurate drawings or weight information, a hydrostatic model of the ferry was made to calculate the stability thoughout the various stages of conversion. A docking plan was developed for docking the vessel in the Lind Marine drydock at Alameda, to where the vessel was towed from its last mooring location in Stockton. The strenght of the existing hull structure, subject to the new roof deck loads, and the new staircase foundation reaction loads, was verified using FE analyses. This was done in close cooporation with the structural engineers at Forell | Elsesser and the architects at RMW. Mooring loads at the new Pier 9 location in San Francisco were provided to the designer of the piles and pile guides. Motion responses were calculated to analyze the workability in extreme wave and wake conditons.

The floating office was officially opened in September 2022 and its roof deck is open to the general public during office hours, unless closed for special events.