This time we had a double-header in the form of a father and daughter joint Guest Speaker. Firstly Eva Veerman gave a humorous summary of her two months in France on a Youth Exchange visit, where she stayed in a very small town not too far from Calais. Eva lived with the family of Suzanne who had been in Perth on an Exchange previously, and she described her school days which typically ran from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm! Then of course Eva had homework to do and she found the schedule rather exacting to say the least. A highlight of her time in France were visits to Paris where she thoroughly enjoyed the ambience and the architecture – and she visited lots of churches! Eva went on a skiing trip which was a unique experience, and she gave a mouth-watering account of the food; all lovely except for the snails! Her Dad, Wilco, then took the floor to describe his life as a Naval Architect and that was an eye-opener too. In his profession they don’t like the words ‘sinking’ and ‘capsizing’! Wilco described Archimedes’ Principle in which the upward buoyant force equals the weight of the fluid displaced by an object or vessel, and he also distinguished between the Centre of Gravity and the Centre of Bouyancy. Wilco supported his talk with a number of photos and diagrams, and gave examples of various practical challenges in moving vessels for whatever reason. One technique is to use semi-submersible vessels, and these are used to transport several yachts for example, or to remove a disabled submarine that weighed 1500 tonnes! Wilco’s current challenge is to dispose of a Navy tanker that is 190 metres long but the dock is only 100 metres long! No problem; first just cut it in half!