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Matthew Collette

@a2navarc.bsky.social
96 followers 111 following 398 posts

Naval architect turned educator

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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
New-to-me glass architecture block design, half oval with some black paints arranged to give full ovals in the design. In mid-century commercial building in Ann Arbor
Rectangular frame filled with glass blocks. Each block has a half oval design surrounded by opaque black surface finish the blocks are arranged to make full oval around two windows in a small vent.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Had a great time presenting on maritime opportunities & workforce at the MAGMA event Macomb Community College, organized by Workforce Intelligence Network (WIN). Thank you to Alysha Albrecht for organizing a great event, and to the other panelists and audience members for an engaging morning.
Me, presenting from behind a desk in a large off-white classroom.  You can see a title slide on a projector screen to my right, and four rows of attendees from the back.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
How can a place that is not home feel so immediately comforting after more than a decade away? Had an amazing time showing Dash-1 and Dash-2 around for a short break, hard to believe they were not yet born and in my life when I lived here.
Black and white photo of the Angel of the North sculpture set as a silhouette against the mostly clear sky. The sun is right behind one of the wings, making it hard to see anything other than the outline of the steel sculpture.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
While much has improved since the 1950s, the fact that you can't easily find a chrome fixture to mount 3 250-watt infrared bulbs on your bathroom ceiling is a step backward. I haven't seen one of these since my grandparents' house in the 1980s. Definitely warm when you step out of the shower!
A 3-bulb Pryne-brand infrared bathroom ceiling fixture in polished chrome housing about 16" in diameter. Two of the three dark red bulbs are on, which is plenty. Based on the age of the house, I'd guess this is from the 1950s-1960s.  It's huge and nicely warming  and vaguely space-aged.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
This account will always be a Fisher Building stan account
Leaf patterned chandelier hanging from a circular, vaguely Central American themed gold round ceiling mosaic on a light blue background.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Borderlines by @lewisbaston.bsky.social is a great read! Using borders as a lens for recent European history is both highly engaging and revealing given the present world situation. It’s not pure travel book but it has more than a bit of the Colin Thubron British travel writing pleasure to it…
Picture of the front of the book Borderlines by Lewis Baston. It has a red title block over a picture of an abandoned border hut
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
My thoughts on 90% of the frigate discourse I am reading are well captured below. My take on the frigate (in more detail): a2navarc.substack.com/p/the-end-of...
Meme of "it might work for us" with a man and a women talking:
Panel 1: "What if we tried to frigate again by adopting a different parent design"
Panel 2: "Well did it work for those people"
Panel 3: "No, it never does.  I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but"
Panel 4: "but it might work for us"
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Great start to #PRADS2025 at the Big House! Looking forward to 4 days of discussing the state-of-the-art in Ship and Offshore Structure design and analysis with experts from around the globe
PRADS attendees in the Jack Roth Stadium Club talking over foodThe big house in the rain from the #PRADS2025 welcome reception
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Signs of strain in the system? Beyond the Red Sea will the USTR port fees start making this event worse? From UNCTAD 2025 Review of Maritime Transport: unctad.org/publication/...
Graph showing annual percentage change of ton of maritime transport and ton*miles.  Lines fairly closely follow each other from 2002 until 2022, when they separated with 2024 showing 5.9% growth in ton-miles with only a 2.2% growth in tons.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Word has been released that after 79 years, the Ship Structure Committee is being dissolved, the much-discussed maritime "rebirth" coming too late to save it. Reports have been moved to OnePetro (onepetro.org/SSCReports) website will go dark on Jan 1st 2026. I'm not sure how many professors...
The classic 1960s/1970s Ship Structure Committee logo, with a highly stylized "s" "s" "c" letters in the form of a wave, with the full name next to the wave.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Tanker Fenris, homeport Oslo, in drydock at Newport News. Unsure when, but given the ship's history and large flag / name marking under the bridge, maybe fall 1939-spring 1940 while Norway was neutral?
B+W photo of an interwar-era tanker in drydock at Newport News. Name is Fenris, and homeport is Oslo, visible on the stern. The ship has a large Norwegian flag and its name painted under the bridge.  The ship was torpedoed in the Pacific in 1944, but survived, lost to fire after the war.  No date or other information on this photo, but looks to be before these events.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
I appreciate that your design maintains McDougall's original two-turret concept, but you've improved on the pig-nose bow significantly.
Image of a whaleback vessel, with a forward and aft "turret" superstructures on top of an otherwise gently rounded deck with limited freeboard, transiting the Poe locks.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaleback#/media/File:Poe_Lock_Whaleback_2.jpg
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Model testing a notional LPV in the tank at U of M! You can watch on the live stream - we will be slowly working our way towards deeper drafts (I'm a little worried about burying the bow and pulling it off the carriage). Livesteam (1 run every ~45 minutes) at: www.youtube.com/live/UKcBXX-...
Photo shows a low-profile vessel, floating at a relatively high draft, mounted on the towing carriage of the U of M model tank.  The vessel is painted yellow with a black grid to help with photo measurements.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
You get a t-shirt for getting published in Proceedings? Academic journals need to raise their game... @usniproceedings.bsky.social
A blue t-shirt with the USNI logo surrounded by "Proceeding Author" on the upper front left
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
I'm not sure this meme translates internationally if you don't know Bernie's political ads, but worth a try...
Bernie Sanders - US politician - meme quote "I am once again asking you to remember that reducing ship design to a single metric leads to unwanted and unanticipated side effects"
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
~68 million tons of cargo, ending with 26,000 tons of wheat. Great Lakes Navigation Season is officially closed for Winter 2025. Thanks to USACE for the images, stats, and making this unique trade possible every year! - www.facebook.com/USACEDetroit...
The vessel American Mariner in the Soo Locks early morning on Jan 16th.  A partially ice-covered lake carrier in a lock with plenty of floating ice under a night sky.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Saw your slides asked for photos from the wild...Caterpillar used to give out rapid selection paper computers to help sell marine engines, this is only 1 of 3 that should be in the set...by the 1990s, their field manuals listed the underlying equations.
Caterpillar paper slide chart for sizing propellers with booklet instructions.  Copyright is 1962.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Inland lake ferry "Leisure Lady" running to Fyre Island in Maine, USA. A simple box barge ferry with a one-person pilothouse and 3 cars on it.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
I don't know the source of this - but it's making it into the lecture revisions for next term!
A marine engineer is climbing out of a tiny space between a machine and the hull structure. It is not clear how he could possibly fit into the space or if he will make it out; whoever placed the machine in this location did not consider that someone would need to access the outboard side for maintenance.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Photo didn't show from the original press release (courtesy: Tokei Kaiun)
A hydroponic vegetable grower looking like a large cabinet with two levels of plants growing.  From original press release -(courtesy: Tokei Kaiun)
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
Hurricane season is going from bad to worse pretty quickly...
Graphic from nhc.noaa.gov showing a depression, a tropical storm, and two potential future storms in the tropics of the Atlantic Ocean
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 17/09/2024
Blue Heron distributed by my morning run (on max iPhone zoom so not getting the photograph tag!)
A Blue Heron takes flight over Mill Pond Park in Saline, Michigan, with its reflection shown on the water.
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 16/09/2024
The French did not see this as a reason to retire the name, which I like for both the perseverance and the name itself. I caught a descendent in San Diego earlier this year
French Research Vessel Pourquoi Pas pier-side in the San Diego sunshine in March 2024
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 02/09/2024
Champak flower from the tropics as Autumn starts here! #photography
Champak flower cluster in front of blurred palm trees
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 12/08/2024
Rudbeckia in the August sunlight #photography
Rudbeckia flowers...
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 31/07/2024
Twilight, Arabian Sea #Photography
Twilight over coastal rocks and water at the edge of the Arabian Sea
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 25/07/2024
Looking for lunch? #Photography
Dragonfly looking over pond
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Matthew Collette @a2navarc.bsky.social · 17/07/2024
The water is always better with a friend! #Photography
Two humpback whales diving
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