A double hull and single vision Europe clings to cruising

SEPTEMBER 2003 ISSUE NO. 84

WITH NEWBUILDINGS

A double hull and single visionEurope clings to cruising

Looking for aliensSafety first

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COMMENTCOMMENTCOMMENTCOMMENTCOMMENT

Fairplay Solutions September 2003 3

HATCHCOVERLESS container ships witha complete cell guide system to securetheir cargo are considered to be the

ultimate box ships in terms of safety and port turnaround by their operators, yet few have beenbuilt so far. Now, ten open-top vessels – dubbedthe ‘Speedboats’ by their original operator – arefinally all operating successfully in the chartermarket, thanks to some imaginative thinking.

These ten 1,733-TEU nominal capacityvessels, with an exceptionally high servicespeed of 25 knots, were originally commissionedby the then privately owned Norasia. Followingits sale to the CSAV Group, they were taken overby Abu Dhabi Container Line (ADCL) which ranthem in a high speed shuttle service betweenHong Kong and Trieste. But cavitation andbearing problems and a declining liner marketbrought a swift end to the service and disasterfor ADCL; the ships were arrested in portsaround the world.

Following their auction on behalf of their maincreditor and its subsequent purchase of theships at half their original construction cost of$35M each, V.Ships was appointed as technicaland commercial manager with a view to operatingthem in the box ship charter market.

Even at a knock-down price – still a bargainafter spending $2M per vessel on drydockingand repairs – the ships faced an over-tonnagedmarket. Worse, their design’s inherent highfreeboard penalised them in GT measurementsand few liner operators would touch the ships.

But V.Ships is now seeing the fruit of somelobbying in the right places earlier this year, and itsexperience is instructive. Then, “all we could getwas fill-in business,” recalls V.Ships’ commercialmanager, Michael Price. Now, the ships are seeingreal business and there is talk of other operatorsplacing orders for this sort of ship.

The problem was that the ships load nineladen TEU high in one stack from tanktop to theheight of the ship’s rail, with no underdeck

Marching on one legTechnical fiction brings commercial reality

space. But they were measured as if they hadunderdeck space from tanktop to rail.

Imaginary deckIt took a joint approach to sort out the mess. Inco-ordination with Bahamas Maritime Authority,the vessel’s flag state, LR produced a reportarguing that their innovative and money savingdesign was being penalised by incorrectapplication of ITC 69 regulations. LR assigned avirtual deck for the ships roughly in the region ofa fifth-tier container and measured the vessel onthis basis, resulting in a GT of approx 15,000 GT.

And what a difference that made. A year ago,the vessels now known as the ‘Shire’ class wereobtaining rates of only $5,000 per day on short-term or round voyage charters. Now, they aregetting longer term fixtures and can benefit fromthe improved market; recent fixtures have seenrates climb to in excess of $10,000 per day. Forexample, APL has taken of the Perth for a four-month period at $10,250 and shorter term fixtureshave seen rates up to a heady US$12,000.

While these ships get into their stride,conventional container ship owners are pushingthe boundaries of on-deck box stowage to up toseven containers high using the archaic lashingrod/twistlock system to secure them; meanwhile,ever more containers are being lost overboard.

Solutions is dedicated to spotlightingtechnical solutions to commercial problems, butthe story of the hatchcoverless box ship, fromits inception in the 1980s until now, has beenone of a technical solution causing its owncommercial problem. It has taken what somewould see as a commercial fiction to break theimpasse and make the technical solution work.

The whole episode demonstrates thattechnology and commerce are the two feet onwhich progress marches forward. Thehatchcoverless ship serves as a reminder that,while it is possible to hop for a short distance, abroken nose is the most likely outcome. S

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Fairplay Solutions September 20034

NEWS

ade of the Seas

Fumigation blamedfor port deathsCHEMICALS used to fumigate a

timber cargo have been blamed forthe deaths of four stevedores last monthat India’s Visakhapatnam Port Trust(VPT). One dock labour board employeeand three stevedoring company workerswere about to unload timber from theThai-flagged bulk carrier Tharinee Nareewhen they collapsed and died on thespot.

The vessel’s hatch was open at thetime of the incident and “chemicals usedfor fumigating the vessel are suspectedas the prime cause of these deaths,possibly by causing asphyxiation”, a portofficial said. The port authorities havefiled a case against the ship’s master. Aninquiry is being carried out by the plantquarantine officer, port health officer andharbour police team. S

GT successpromptsimitators

MORE operators are keen to followV.Ships’ lead in having their open-

hatch container ships re-rated for GT. Theship manager succeeded in having itsBahamas-flag Shire-class ships re-ratedsix months ago and has reported goodemployment since. High GT values havebeen the major stumbling block for open-hatch vessels, which otherwise offeroperational benefits, since they candischarge and load much faster thanconventional container vessels, which isimportant for the 1,000-1,500 TEU feedersthat call at several ports each week.

While the reduced GT currentlyapplies to only vessels registered in theBahamas, Solutions understands that theDutch Transport Ministry is studying arequest from P&O Nedlloyd to have itsDutch-flagged open-hatch vesselsremeasured, something it has been keento do since V.Ships initial success.Managers at Rotterdam, a major port ofcall for feeder vessels, told Solutions thatit is open to suggestions regarding arevision of port dues for open containerships.

Other short sea operators are nowsaid to be looking into the possibility ofordering such vessels. S

ROLLS-Royce has bought themarine-related business of UK

company VT Controls for £11M ($18M),marking “an important element of ourstrategy for growth in the marine sector,”said Rolls-Royce president Saul Lanyadoin a statement last month.

The company will be incorporatedinto Rolls-Royce’s Marine ElectricalSystems business unit, which was set up

Rolls-Royce buys VT Controlsearlier this year, where it will boost theunit’s support services for “marineprojects involving major electricalsystems,” the statement notes. The unit’sheadquarters will move to VT Control’spremises in Portsmouth, on the UK’ssouth coast.

VT Control’s aerospace and oil andgas divisions are not included in thepurchase. S

Serenade enters serviceSerenade of the Seas was due to enter service as this issue of Solutions went topress. The ship was delivered by Meyer Werft in Germany at the end of July butformally christened in New York on August 22 before operating to Canada and NewEngland for its autumn programme. The ship is the third Radiance-class ship and ispowered by a combined gas/steam turbine plant supplied by General Electric and two20,000-kW Azipods.

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NEWSSTX tests firstlicensee-builtL21/31 engine

THE first MAN B&W L21/31 engineto be built by a licensee has been

tested in Korea, where it was built bySTX. An MAN B&W spokesmandescribed the event to Solutions as “alandmark for production in Korea.” Thefive-cylinder engine produces 950 kWat 900 rpm and is aimed primarily at theauxiliary generator market, although itcan also be configured as a propulsionunit for small vessels.

It is said to be lower and shorter thancomparable engines and is claimed tohave a robust design with low mainte-nance requirements. It has provedpopular with ferry operators and the firstL21/31 engine entered service last year onboard the ferry Princess of Scandinavia.

DFDS Tor Line was also an earlysupporter, taking 16 eight-cylinderversions for a series of newbuildings atFlensburger.

STX unveiled its engine on the 25th

anniversary of its licence agreementwith MAN B&W, prompting ClausWindelev, senior vice president ofMAN B&W Diesel, to describe theoccasion as “a historic moment, whichreaffirms the long and strong tiesbetween our two companies.”

TD Kim, CEO and president of STXechoed those sentiments. “I am veryproud of this achievement,” he told hisguests, and underlined the engine’sbenefits, saying that its design will allowlonger times between overhauls.

This first engine is destined for one ofthree 73,000-DWT products tankers onorder at the STX shipyard for Greekowner Byzantine Maritime. Each ship willbe fitted with three of the engines, forpower generation purposes. S

SHOP primer paint “can be consid-ered safer than epoxy coating” asan anti-corrosion treatment for

VLCC cargo tanks, believes Mitsui OSKLines (MOL) after research carried outwith JFE Steel and Chugoku MarinePaints.

Shop primer is made mainly of zinc,MOL pointed out in a summary of itsfindings last month, and over time thistransforms into a “fine hard coating ofiron and zinc oxide”. Analysis of a samplebottom plate cut from a VLCC after 2.5years in service showed that this oxidecoating had more than tripled in thick-ness over that time, from 15 µm to 50 µm.

MOL believes that double-hulledVLCCs are more at risk to corrosionbecause of their flat tank bottoms, which“may prevent formation of [an] oil-coating,” its report notes, “increasing thepossibility of corrosion.”

Masaaki Yutani, manager of MOL’senvironment and technology group,explained that crude oil washing systemsare more effective at removing any

Shop primer ‘preventscorrosion’ in cargo tanks

protective oil film from the unobstructedsurfaces of double-hulled tanks.

As a result, there is more pitting in thesteel and MOL checked for pitting toassess its coating options. It inspectedthe 20 mm-thick cargo tanks of a numberof VLCCs and found typically about 50pits of 4-7 mm deep. In the tankers coatedwith epoxy, however, it found more than1,000 pits and, on ships aged five years,2,000 pits.

On this basis, it concluded that“VLCCs coated with shop primer havefewer and shallower pits.” Once an epoxycoating is damaged, it noted, “that partwill progressively corrode.”

Using primer rather than epoxy clearlyleads to cost savings, but Yutani insistedto Solutions that “we are talking aboutthis not from a cost but from a safetypoint of view.” But he estimated thatprimer costs about $250,000 less per shipthan epoxy and agreed that maintenancecosts would be reduced; “2,000 pits willcost a lot more than 50 pits to repair,” hecommented. S

ENGINE makers Volvo and Wärtsiläare planning to co-operate on service

and delivery for their commercial shippingcustomers. Volvo now offers engines ofup to 1,500 kW, which are being installedas propulsion units in small vessels andas auxiliaries in larger ones. Under theplanned agreement, Wärtsilä will sell andservice Volvo’s auxiliary engines andgensets.

Welcoming the move in a statementlast month, Göran Gummeson, Volvo’s

Volvo and Wärtsilä to co-operatevice president responsible for its marineengines said that the deal “canstrengthen both companies’ total cus-tomer offering.” And Tage Blomberg,group vice president of Wärtsilä’s servicedivision, described the move as “asignificant step” for the company.

The combined operation will beintroduced into a number of regionalmarkets in the short term, with globalcoverage planned to follow suit in thefuture. S

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IN TOUCH

ELECTRONIC navigation charts(ENCs) of Durban, South Africaare the first non-European ENCs

to be offered by the UK HydrographicOffice.

The Durban ENC is the start of aseries of 80 ENC cells from the SouthAfrican National Hydrographic Office dueto be released over the coming months.Until now, the Admiralty ENC service,launched in July 2002, has only coveredEuropean waters and includes ENCs from

Admiralty adds Africato ENC service

A complete revision of the BP Ship-ping Marine Distance Tables is

under way and is expected to be com-pleted in time for publication next year.

BP Shipping has teamed up withsoftware-specialist AtoBviaC to bring theMarine Distance Tables into line withmodern trading routes, larger ships andincreasing numbers of ports in moreregions of the world. The new MarineDistance Tables will be available ascomputer software, via the internet and inbook form.

Distances will be available to over2,000 ports and more than 150,000 freshlycalculated distances are expected to be inthe first release. Ports will be selectedfrom the existing publication, Worldscaleports plus additions from Lloyd’s Port

BIMCO’slatest idea

BIMCO has released an updatedversion of its Internet-based charter

party editing system under the title ‘idea2003’. The upgraded service providesusers with a number of new features suchas exchanging documents for editingonline; customising the appearance ofamended forms and incorporatingcompany logos into bills of lading. A newadd-on feature allows written and audionotes to be attached on-screen to anypart of a page of a document produced byidea 2003.

Since its launch two years ago, thesystem has grown rapidly and there arecurrently 440 companies in 50 countriesusing the service.

The new custom edit feature allowsusers to choose what colour inserted andstruck-out text will be and whether editedtext will be in italics, bold or underlined.As an add-on feature to idea 2003, AdobeAcrobat can be used to add “sticky”notes and even audio comments any-where on the pages of a charter party orother agreement created by idea 2003.The annotated document can then bereturned by e-mail to the original authorof the document for further revision.

The system now contains over 40electronic forms and a number of non-BIMCO forms are in the process of beingadded, including several charter partiesfrom major charterers.

Idea 2003 is available at an annualsubscription rate of $100 for BIMCOmembers and US$200 for non-membersuntil October 31, 2003.

For more details visit BIMCO’s website at www.bimco.dk S

the UK, Belgium, Germany Portugal andSpain. Negotiations with other ENCsuppliers are underway to increase thecoverage within Europe and beyond.

The South African ENCs are beingreleased to the 14 shipping companiesparticipating in the Admiralty ECDISService trials now taking place before thefull commercial launch later this year. Thecost of the new ENCs has been set at£15.50, the same as comparable papercharts. S

Call Data. Voyage planners will be ableto see the start point and destination,routeing options and basic navigationalinformation.

AtoBviaC has enlisted a team ofexperienced masters to ensure the newversions reflect current trends in sea-borne transport. Routes will comply withmandated traffic separation schemes,known voluntary schemes and nationaland international regulations. Amongmany new features will be the ability toselect routes avoiding environmentallysensitive areas as well as shortest routes.New capabilities will make the MarineDistance Tables attractive to othersectors of the shipping industry such asdry bulk, containers and demurrageinterests, not just oil and gas vessels. S

SATELLITE service provider Iridiumhas joined the text revolution and

launched SMS (short messaging service)to commercial users.

Text messages of up to 160 characterscan be sent between subscribers and toand from e-mail addresses and thecompany plans to extend it to other cellphone networks by the end of the year.Messages sent but not collected will bestored for up to 8 days.

In June Iridium introduced a shortburst data system for transferring com-pressed data files up to 1,960 bytes butmessages on the SMS will not be com-pressed. S

Iridium gets into text A change in theweather

ONE of the oldest names in weatherrouteing services has disappeared

but the service it provided will continue.Oceanroutes which had been in

business for over half a century wastaken over by its US parent Weathernewsin 1993 and has now adopted that name.The company is currently introducingOrion Pro, an upgrade to its on-boardship routeing system, and Metwatch, anew Web-based service for the oil andgas industry. S

BP revises distance tables

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CRUISE SHIP DESIGNCRUISE SHIP DESIGN

CRUISE ship construction is thelast bastion of European shipyards yet to fall under the Asian

onslaught. While South Korea andeventually China may have aspirations tobuild large passenger vessels, onlyJapan’s Mitsubishi HI has yet managedto wrest any contracts from the grip ofthe half dozen or so European yards thatdominate this sector. And yet those yardscannot feel comfortable and secure; whilethey do still have work – in some casesthrough to 2006 – that is the tail end of aflurry of orders placed before 2001.

Kværner Masa-Yards (KMY) doeshave the prospect of being granted thecontract for what is being called theUltra-Voyager class but that apparentlydepends upon the strength of the dollaragainst the euro. Should the RoyalCaribbean Cruises’ project materialise, thenew 160,000-GT ship will eclipse Cunard’s150,000-GT QM2 ending its reign as thelargest passenger vessel ever built.Details on other dimensions, speeds andequipment have not yet been revealed,although the announcement of the deal inJune hinted that the Ultra-Voyager wouldbe roughly 15 per cent larger in space andpassenger capacity than the Voyager

Ready for the gold rushEurope’s yards catch their breath

class vessels, the last of which –Mariner of the Seas – is due fordelivery by KMY Turku next month.

Long term confidence in the cruisemarket is becoming more evident asthe sudden shock of terrorism fadesand life returns to normal, but ship-yards must build to survive andunless orders come soon, some ofthem will be in trouble. With almost ahalf share in the sector, Fincantierimust be sleeping easier than the likesof Chantiers de l’Atlantique, KMY orMeyer Werft, the other major players incruise ship construction. Chantiers’parent company Alstom was given a cashinjection by the French government lastmonth and that, together with someorders for ferries and LNG ships, shouldkeep the St Nazaire yard in businessready for a new round of cruise shipordering predicted by 2008.

Heavily discounted prices at travelagents for cruise holidays might seem proofthat the sector is overtonnaged yet somewithin the operating sector are predicting amassive surge in demand for berths and, byimplication, new ships over the next fiveyears. Speaking at the May Cruise andFerry conference in London, George

Michaelides general manager marketing,Louis Cruise Lines, described cruising as‘the fastest growing sector of the globalleisure industry’ and said he expected thatthe European cruise market would undergoa 75 per cent increase in the next five years.

Other analysts predict rises of lessermagnitude but none are talking of a dropin overall demand. Good news forshipbuilders and equipment manufactur-ers, but something of a headache for thedesigners because ‘making the ship fitthe passenger’ is seen as the best way oftapping the potential market for cruising.Cruising is no longer the preserve of thewealthy, even if the upper end of themarket is the most publicised, and shipsare now being designed to match a wholerange of different categories of passen-gers and lifestyles.

Keeping the customerssatisfiedIf designers see the ship itself as becom-ing the destination, then the ports of callduring the voyage are merely diversions.If they succeed, the extra cost of provid-ing on board golf courses, rock climbingwalls or circus-style entertainment can berecovered by reducing the number of portcalls, saving tens of thousands of dollars

Lloyd Werft’s special relationship with NCL continues with thecompletion of Pride of America seen here ready for the 25 m extrasection to be inserted (Photo: Ralf Whitthohn)

Designers believe that ships should nolonger look like ships and should be ‘adestination in themselves’ – this is the RoyalPromenade on Navigator of the Seas

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CRUISE SHIP DESIGNeach time and persuading passengers tospend their holiday cash on board ratherthan in the souvenir shops and barsashore. Providing dynamic positioningsystems on new cruise ships will assistthem in remaining offshore allowingpassengers intent on visiting foreigncountries to be tendered ashore while theship itself will incur less if any portcharges.

If the predictions and designers’views are indeed the future for cruiseships, then there will be a large number ofships that will need refurbishing, upgrad-ing and converting to meet passengerdemands and expectations. That alonewill provide work for shipyards, particu-larly those like Lloyd Werft which hasbecome something of a specialist incruise ship conversions.

The German yard is currently workingon completing and lengthening the Prideof America for Norwegian Cruise Lines(NCL). The ship, along with a secondwhich remains unassembled, was sup-posed to have been the first US-builtcruise ship in 40 years when work beganon it at the Ingalls yard in Pascagoula.When the owner, American ClassicVoyages went bust, the two ships weresold to NCL which towed the partiallybuilt hull across the Atlantic to theGerman yard in December last year.

With the original steelwork completedin July the ship was then cut and workhas begun on inserting an extra 25-msection into the ship bringing its newlength to 281 m. Reportedly, two extraengines are being added in the newsection and cabins for a further 500passengers will also be installed.

Lloyd Werft appears to have aparticularly good relationship with NCLhaving completed the Norwegian Sky forit from the hull of a ship originallyintended for Costa. It will also be provid-ing a haven for NCL’s oldest ship Norwaywhich arrived at the yard in July followinga fatal boiler explosion some weeks earlier.A decision on its future has yet to bemade but there are rumours that the steamturbines could be ripped out and replacedwith diesels. The cost of doing that hasbeen estimated at $200M which may leavereplacing the ship’s boilers as a cheaperoption. The other alternative of scrappingthe 43-year old veteran would leave manypassenger ship aficionados horrified asthe vessel is considered to be the last ofthe true Atlantic liners. S

OF ALL the cruise ships ever builtthe Titanic more than any otherhas influenced passenger ship

design across the decades. That is notbecause of any particular features itcontained but more because of the ones itdid not. Had there been enough lifeboatcapacity and had the ship not sunk, it isquestionable if there would ever havebeen a SOLAS convention or the regula-tions contained in it. There have beenother passenger ship disasters since theloss of that great and ill-fated ship but itis probably true to say that the moderncruise vessel is the safest type of shipafloat thanks in part to the regulationslaid down in SOLAS.

However, those regulations have alsobeen a constraining factor on navalarchitects and designers and, despite theamazing innovations and awe-inspiringcreations that are the hallmark of themodern cruise ship, the next generation ofvessels may be the first for a centurywhere truly radical ideas have beenallowed to be realised.

Large passenger ship safety andconstruction has been on the IMO’sagenda for some time now but has beenovershadowed in recent years by securityissues, bulk carrier concerns and anaccelerated phase out of single-skintankers. The Maritime Safety Committee(MSC) held its 77th session in Londonearlier this year and, although it receivedreports of work done by no less than foursub-committees, the target completiondate for new recommendations andregulation was extended to next summer’s78th session.

Designers get a free handOne aspect of the SOLAS regulationsthat has already changed is that relatingto fire prevention and protection. UnderRegulation 17 of the revised SOLASChapter II, an alternative risk-based

approach is now permitted. This meansthat some more leeway has been given todesigners and equipment such as thedirectional sound systems developed bySound Alert may now be acceptable.

While the new regulation came intoforce for new ships in July 2002, fewdesigners have yet had a chance toexplore all the possibilities that may openup to them because so few orders for newships have been placed since then, and ofthose that have, most are for ships ofexisting designs. Also holding backdevelopment is uncertainty over exactlyhow administrations will interpret the newregulations and what will be allowed –together with waiting for approval of thecomputer programs used to simulate fireevacuation scenarios.

But consideration must still be givento future cruise ship design even ifexactly what is allowable and what is nothas still to be decided. The cruise shipindustry itself has its own views on howfuture ships should be built and equippedand has two organisations, the ICCL andthe CSSF involved in putting forwardideas to the IMO and implementingpolicies in excess of SOLAS require-ments.

Those ideas are eminently sensibleand laudable but, apart from the proposalthat all ships should have redundant andseparate propulsion and steering sys-tems, they are hardly likely to produceany thing different from what might nowbe considered a typical cruise ship. Ideasfor floating islands and gigantic construc-tions for tens of thousands of passengersare, on the other hand, almost pure flightsof fancy and unlikely to be seen for manya year if ever.

In between these two extremes thereare thoughts and ideas circulating among

Designing for the future

Deltamarin’s folding bow idea (see p12)would allow extra space amidships andanother deck – marked here in red

SOLED030904005.p65 27/08/2003, 19:2510



CRUISE SHIP DESIGN

UNTIL the current generation ofcruise ships was conceived,designers had always been

conservative when it came to choosingpower and propulsion systems. Steamturbines were gradually replaced bydiesels engines but conventional propel-lers and rudders were standard until thefirst pods made their appearance on theElation in 1998. Now it is almost unheardof for a large cruise vessel to be builtwithout pods but even today not all ofthe teething troubles that might beexpected from such innovative technol-ogy have yet been ironed out.

Both the leading brands – ABB’sAzipod and Rolls-Royce/Alstom’sMermaid – designs have been, or are, thesubject of legal claims by disgruntledowners upset by highly public failuresand cancelled cruises. ABB’s problemshave been far less than those suffered byits rival with only the failure of the podson Paradise being of any consequence.Carnival apparently settled for a paymentof $18M plus a commitment to replace atno cost any other units that failed.

The Mermaid pods seem far moreaccident-prone with all four of CelebrityCruises’ Millennium class being affectedby mechanical and electrical problems

causing cancellations and expensivedrydocking for repairs. Installation workon the four Mermaid pods for the QM2was also delayed because of faultsdiscovered on the first to be delivered tothe ship in February this year.

Unfortunately for Rolls-Royce andAlstom, the QM2 floating out ceremonyin March was relegated to a drydockparty and the absence of the pods wasduly noted by the shipping and cruisepress brigades, who remembered thecancelled press cruise on Constellationin May 2002.

Compensation claimCelebrity has now brought a case againstthe two companies involved in makingthe Mermaid pods, alleging ‘defectivedesign’ and ‘fraudulent claims’ andseeking $30M for loss of revenue.

At the root of these claims is a seriesof bearing and seal failures that might beattributable to unexpected stress loadsplaced on these areas during normaloperations. A contributing factor couldbe the inexperience of navigators usingpods and attempting manoeuvres that,while technically possible, are beyond thedesign operational limits of the equip-ment. The latter point can be addressed

the more serious organisations that mightbe involved in constructing the nextgeneration of cruise ship. Ignoring thecosmetic aspects of design, there arethree main factors to take into considera-tion – size, power and layout.

Borrowing bowsfrom ferriesSize is clearly important to ship operatorsjudging by the trend towards larger ships,and chief among the considerations is theroute and purpose of the ship. Round theworld itineraries demand that the ship beable to pass through the Panama Canaland some innovative ideas and a freerhand with regard to regulations hasallowed Finland’s Deltamarin to propose adesign for a ‘Super Panamax’ cruise shipwith a gross tonnage around 10 per centmore than is currently possible.

The most revolutionary aspect of thedesign that was described byDeltamarin’s business developmentdirector Markku Kanerva at this year’sCruise and Ferry exhibition in May is afolding bow of the type usually found onro-pax ferries. Kanerva explained thatadding an 11-m folding section to thebow of a ship with an overall length of305 m (Panama maximum is 294 m) wouldallow the ship into the locks but, moreimportantly, the additional length at seaand its effect on the ship’s displacementwould allow a complete deck to be added.

Less obvious features of the designinvolve a complete rethink of machineryand service spaces. Combining theeffects of SOLAS Chapter II, Regulation17 and new probabilistic damage stabilityrules, means that conventional thinkingcan be discarded. Under the new rules alllimits on B/5 longitudinal bulkheads, B/10deck height, margin line criteria andsimilar restraints will disappear,compartmentation will not be limited totransverse bulkheads and the position ofbulkheads – other than the collisionbulkhead – will not be predetermined.

Deltamarin proposes that all machin-ery spaces should be aft and the spacefreed up used for services such as storesand baggage, laundry and workshops.Compared with current designs, thatwould also permit the lower passengercabins to be located on deck three ratherthan deck four. Alternatively, the freedspace could be used for entertainment orother revenue-earning activities. S

Problems for pod makers

Pods are now standard fittings oncruise ships. These are ABB Azipodson Radiance of the Seas

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CRUISE SHIP DESIGN

CRUISE ships are prodigiousconsumers of power and demandhas increased along with passen-

gers’ expectations of luxury. The trendtowards pods as the first choice forpropulsion has allowed a much moreflexible approach to satisfying bothpower demand and a need to reduce theenvironmental impact of producing it.They have also made it much easier to

by better training using simulators beforeallowing a ‘novice’ handler to be let looseon the real thing, but the more fundamen-tal design problems must be solved ifpod makers want to keep their strangle-hold on the market.

A newcomer to the cruise ship podmarket is the Dolphin system developedjointly by Wärtsilä and STN Atlas, whichhas made its debut on Radisson’s new42,000-GT Seven Seas Voyager built byT Mariotti in Genoa. The ship may not bein quite the same size sector as most ofthe pod-driven ships, but it does competeon luxury with all 700 guests beingaccommodated in suites with privatebalconies. S

The empty podmountings on QM2 atwhat was supposedto be the ship’sfloating out ceremonyin March bear silentwitness to thetroubles beingexperienced byMermaid pods.

Playing with power optionsachieve redundancy and improved safetyby allowing engines to be placed almostanywhere within the ship.

Electricity to power the pods andsatisfy the hotel loading can be producedby diesel engines, steam turbines and –increasingly common – gas turbines usedin a variety of combinations. A proposalby Wärtsilä envisages a combined diesel-electric and diesel mechanical design

(CODED) which uses two electric pow-ered pods alongside a conventionalpropeller powered by one or more dieselengines.

In developing the CODED proposal,Wärtsilä compared the capital andoperating costs with a conventionaldiesel-mechanical drive system and atypical diesel-electric podded layout anddecided that the CODED solution waseconomically efficient. It also offers abetter redundancy capability because ituses three propulsion systems ratherthan two.

A typical pod-propelled design usingtwo 22.5 MW pods would have six 12.8MW diesel gensets whereas Wärtsilä’sCODED layout would use two 12.8 MWengines backed up by five 9.45 MWgensets. The mechanically-driven CPPwould be powered by the engines

Wärtsilä proposes a CODEDpropulsion package forfuture cruise ships

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CRUISE SHIP DESIGN

WHEN Fincantieri deliveredHolland America Line’s (HAL)cruiseship Oosterdam on 12

July this year, the new ship - built at theMarghera (Venice) yard - became thetenth new ship that HAL has added to itsexpanded fleet over the past ten yearsand every one of them was constructedby the Italian builder.

In fact the 84,000-GT vessel is thesecond newbuilding in what is intendedto be a four-ship series supplementingthe previous two classes, which alsoconsisted of four ships apiece. Four55,000-GT Statendam class vessels werebuilt between 1993 and 1996 and four60,000-63,000-GT ships in the Rotterdam/Amsterdam class between 1997 and 2000.The new larger series, called the Vistaclass, is claimed as the most luxuriousconceived for the owner: The Zuiderdam,the prototype in the series, was deliveredlast November while the two remainingsister ships will be delivered in spring2004 and early 2006. The Vista class shipsare 290 m long, can carry 3,200 people(2,388 passengers and 812 crew) at acruising speed of 22 knots.

The Oosterdam is the 26th shipFincantieri has built for the Carnival-Princess Cruises group and over the nextthree years a further nine ships will bebuilt for several companies in the groupat the shipyards of Monfalcone,Marghera and Sestri Ponente. On thesame day of the Oosterdam delivery, asecond and related event occurred at theMarghera shipyard: the keel-laying of theQueen Victoria for Cunard Line (Cunard,

like HAL, is of course owned by theCarnival group). The 85,000-GT vessel,Cunard’s first Panamax unit, is scheduledto be launched in May next year anddelivered in March 2005. Although veryslightly larger than the Vista class, QueenVictoria is derived from the same design.

This huge amount of work fromCarnival (worth $12Bn to date) hasallowed Fincantieri to grab a market shareof 49% in the cruise ship sector and italso succeeded in gaining the only twonew orders given by ship owners follow-ing the tragic events of 11 September2001,

Class differencesThe Vista class, designed for ocean-going unlimited world-wide cruiseservice, is completely new and verydifferent in comparison with both theStatendam and Rotterdam class previ-ously built by Fincantieri. The very nameVista itself gives an insight into the mainaim pursued by the ship’s architects anddesigners of giving the passengers waysto enjoy to the utmost the external viewsfrom the ship.

As an example, an idea borrowed fromsome modern high office and hotelbuildings but never before seen on acruise ship, is installing external liftsallowing a 180 degree panoramic view

through a reduction gearbox withsteering provided by a Lips efficiencyrudder. The gearbox would be fitted witha power take-in from an electric motor toprovide redundancy in the event of oneof the main engines failing. Two pods of12 MW each placed either side of themechanical drive would provide theelectric element of the system.

While Wärtsilä is not promoting apower system involving gas turbines, itsengines are being used in such configu-rations. Princess Cruises’ Coral Princessis fitted with two 16V46 Enviro-enginegensets of 16.8 MW output each and aGeneral Electric GE LM2500+ gas turbineof 25 MW in a CODAG system. Cunard’sQM2 uses the same engines but has twogas turbines and four gensets. Relyingon two GE gas turbines alone, RoyalCaribbean International’s Serenade ofthe Seas has them in a COGES layoutwith the exhaust gases from the turbinesused to generate steam in an exhaust gasboiler which in turn powers a Fincantieristeam turbine.

General Electric has a dominantposition in the cruise ship market andhas 26 turbines fitted or on order for atotal of 21 ships. In July this year alonethree vessels – Serenade of the Seas,Island Princess and Oosterdam – wereall delivered with GE turbines providingpower. Although acknowledged asexpensive to run, gas turbines are muchcleaner than diesel engines and arevirtually pollution free, making themparticularly useful for environmentallysensitive areas. In addition they arerelatively compact for their output andcan be installed in funnel casings soreleasing valuable space for revenue-earning purposes. S

Gas turbines from General Electric, suchas this LM2500+ destined for the QM2,are installed on many cruise vessels

Genesisof acruiseshipLatest offspring ofa long relationship

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CRUISE SHIP DESIGN

over the sea to passengers as they travel between decks. Asecond remarkable feature is the spacious staterooms, of which85 per cent are outside and 56 per cent have private balconies,consistent with a trend started in 2000 for Carnival Group withCosta Atlantica, built at KMY of Helsinki.

The external profile of the ship is very classic but, wheremany cruise ships have an almost completely white superstruc-ture, the Oosterdam’s blue hull and blue glass windows com-bined with the white metalwork give it a distinctly stripedappearance. The horizontal lines are interrupted in the middle bythe vertical blue glass elevator trunk that characterises the ship,together with the small twin funnels, making it easily recognis-able from afar.

Generally the lay-out is the same as most modern Panamaxcruise vessels; with narrow superstructures but taller, tooptimise and increase the number of outside cabins decks and

maximise the number of balconies, with passenger lounges ondecks close to life boats or high up and connecting to the opendecks. The ship has the maximum possible beam (32.3 m) but notthe length; at around 285 m it is almost nine metres shorter thancan be presently accommodated in the canal.

Innovative propulsionThis ship is a move forward in many ways, although for thiscategory of vessels technical choices are limited by severalconstraints such as Panamax dimensions, draught, weathercriteria, available passenger and machinery space and commer-cial considerations. Nevertheless, some innovations are in-cluded and while performance may not outstanding it is morethan sufficient for the type of work the ship has been designedfor. During sea trials a service speed of about 22.5 kt wasachieved by its Azipod propulsion and this is apparentlyslightly higher than the contract called for.

The Vista class ships are the first HAL vessels to combinediesel and gas turbine electric propulsion. The power plantconsists of five Wärtsilä diesel generators backed up by a GEgas turbine, very handy when cruising in environmentallysensitive areas where low emissions are compulsory. In suchcircumstance the gas turbine provides all the necessary powerfor the hotel and essential services allowing the diesel enginesto be shut down when the ship is stationary.

A great deal of thought has been given to vibration levelsand by using floating floors and other damping devices one can

Fincantieri’s latest delivery for long standing customerHAL – the Oosterdam is the second in its class and willbe a half-sister to Cunard’s Queen Victoria

Usually hidden under luxurious floorcoverings, floating floors increasepassenger comfort considerably bydramatically reducing vibration

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CRUISE SHIP DESIGNhardly feel the ship even when sailing attop speed and on the aft main restaurant,just above the propellers. The highestvibration level measured on board duringtrials was less than 1.2 mm/sec², aroundone third of the maximum contractuallimits.

All public lounges are concentratedon decks 2, 3 and 9 and above, anddespite the longer room lengths com-pared with the previous class, architectDingeman and his team at VFD, responsi-ble for the decoration, have done aremarkable job. The ship has a yacht-likeatmosphere, with a lot of small, intimateand comfortable corners where everypassenger can find a place to relax.

Accommodation on the ship isavailable for 2,388 passengers andconsists of 924 cabins or suites ofvarying sizes including two penthousesuites, 60 suites, 100 mini-suites, 460 de-luxe cabins and 39 large standard cabins.The 812 crew members have a further 468cabins between them. The spaciouspassenger cabins are described as welldecorated and the ships have a mixture of

cabin types that the typically older-than-average HAL passengers are said toreally appreciate, especially the largebalcony size in the outside cabins.

For optimising passenger flow ondecks and service in the aft main diningroom, the main galley has been duplicatedportside on decks 2 and 3; so there is adirect access from both the passengerpublic decks to the main restaurantwithout compromising the service flow ofthe waiters from the galley.

The common link of all the new HALships, from the passenger angle, is theirvery sophisticated style, which includesrich art collections presented in animaginative way. On board the Oosterdamthere are over 1,700 different materials,sourced from all over the world, somevery precious and used in relatively smallquantities. Since each type of material hasto be documented and approved, design-ers and suppliers faced a mammoth task.

What’s next?For the time being, Fincantieri does notforesee any further size increases for

future HAL ships because the type ofservice and cruise experience the lineoffers its passengers is not consideredcompatible with post-Panamax ships.“Market requirements are well establishednowadays: higher outside passengercabins with a balcony is one of them butnot the only one” states Fincantieri’sMaurizio Cergol, cruise vessel chiefdesigner.

Owners themselves appreciate a ship’quality and technical performance, hebelieves. “This is the main reason whyour clients remain or return to us,” hebelieves. “The design and productionprocess always improves when severalexperiences are brought in. All theknowledge gained working with an ownerbecomes company know-how, there is nowatertight segregation of knowledgeinside Fincantieri’s Design and TechnicalDepartments,” he says.

Five into fourOriginally the Vista class order for HALwas of five units, until one was divertedto Cunard and will be built as the QueenVictoria. Spring 2004 will see the deliveryof the Westerdam and the final ship isexpected early in 2006.

When the contract for re-brandingQueen Victoria was signed in late 2001,Fincantieri and Carnival also agreed to are-scheduling of the other HAL ships,beginning a process that ultimately led tothe new Caribbean Princess II – the116,000 GT Caribbean Princess waslaunched on 4 July 2003 – to be deliveredin 2006.

Cunard’s Queen Victoria will besomewhat different from Oosterdam, dueto the insertion of a 16th deck bringingcapacity up to 2,543 passengers and 866crew and increasing the ratio of outsidecabins from 85 to 86 per cent out of a totalof 984 staterooms.

This first ship for Cunard everdesigned by Fincantieri, due by Autumn2005, is especially significant. “We havemade remarkable joint efforts to create aship expressly tuned to the style of sucha prestigious brand” said Enrico Buschi,Fincantieri’s head of cruise ships busi-ness unit. “Starting from an existingdesign, important innovative featureshave been added: the public areas havebeen reviewed and redesigned and all theaccommodation has been adapted to therequirements and expectations of Cunardguests,” he said. S

Finishing touches

ALL modern cruise ships are builtusing the block system, allowing the

main hull and machinery to be completedin a comparatively short space of time.The number of blocks will vary depend-ing on the size of the ship – 94 were usedfor the QM2 – and yards are employingevery means possible to reduce thenumber. But once completed, a vastamount of fitting-out work still remains tobe done. Cabins are usually pre-fabri-cated to save time and lifted on boardwhere they are connected to the mainsservices. Then the real work of bringingthe designers’ dreams to reality can begin

in earnest. The amount of materials usedin a modern cruise ship is astounding asthe figures below for the QM2 willillustrate:

� 300,000 steel sections� 550,000 m² of coatings� 250 tonnes of paint� 2,500 km electric cabling� 500 km of ducts and pipes� 2,000 bathrooms� 80,000 lighting points� 250,000 m² of fitted carpet� 120,000 m² of insulating material� 3,000 telephones� 8,800 loud speakers� 5,000 fire detectors� 8,350 automatic fire extinguishers� 1,100 fire doors

Even a smaller ship the size ofSerenade of the Seas which, at 90,000 GTis only 60 per cent the size of the QM2and 45 m shorter, will have similar statis-tics, for example 2,200 km of electric cable,220 tonnes of paint and 200 km of pipework. Meyer Werft, which built thesmaller vessel, has over 20 Tracto-Technik pipe bending machines and usesan automated system to ensure exact sizeof pipes for prefabricating purposes. S

Much of the work involved in cruiseship building is in fitting out

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CRUISE SHIP DESIGN

NOW being fitted out at Chantierde l’Atlantique’s St Nazaire yardis Cunard’s QM2 proclaimed by

its owner as the largest, longest, widest,tallest and most expensive passengership in history. It is also said that when itenters service next January it will becomethe flagship of the British merchantmarine. While it is true that the vesselwill sail under the red ensign, there willbe many who will question itsBritishness; the ship having been built inFrance, powered by US and Finnishmachinery, propelled by Swedish/Frenchpods and, not least, owned by anAmerican parent company. In fact onlythe bridge equipment and stabilisers willhave been supplied by British firms(Kelvin Hughes and Brown Brothersrespectively).

But to criticise the ship for nationalis-tic reasons would be churlish for it isindeed a very fine ship. At first glancethe ship’s lines are much more traditionalthan many modern cruise ships with alongish foredeck and the superstructurebeing set back well away from the sternat the lowest level and increasingly sothe higher the deck is positioned.

The hull is made from extra thick steel

Anatomyof a queen

MW each – in all a total of 117.2 MW ofwhich 86 MW will be consumed by thepods when running at full speed. Cunardclaims that the ship’s power is almostdouble that of most 100,000 GT ships, andis sufficient to cover the lighting needs ofa city the size of its home port, Southamp-ton.

The two gas turbines are locatedbehind and slightly below the funnel toaccommodate their need for a high volumeair intake without using valuable space forlarge amounts of ducting. The fourgensets on the other hand are located lowdown in the ship where their weight willaid stability. A generator is connected tothe gas turbines, which run at 3,600 rpm,using a reduction gearbox but it is notintended that the turbines will be usedcontinuously and they will only be runwhen a high speed is required or inemergencies.

Clean and greenEnvironmental considerations go beyondthe installation of Enviro-engines andinclude coatings, waste treatment andrefrigeration systems. Jotun Sea Quantum,a copper oxide self polishing anti-fouling,is the coating that has been chosen tomeet the new anti-fouling regulations andthe ban on TBT paints.

Black and grey water are treated in aRhodia membrane bioreactor that breaks itdown to a standard very close to that fordrinking water, comfortably exceedingmost current surface water legislation inthe US and Europe. Sludge from the plantis sent to the food waste treatment plantfor further processing and then eitherpumped into the ballast tanks (eliminatingthe use of seawater ballast and the risk orspecies transfer) or used for washingdecks and windows or in the ship’slaundry. Oily wastes are treated using anAlfa Laval system that reduces oil contentto less than 5 ppm. Remaining oil andsludge are burnt in the incinerators orboilers or else pumped ashore. Foodwaste is also incinerated but paper,cardboard, plastic, glass and cans are allcollected and packed for recycling ashore. S

Queen Mary 2 takesshape at Chantiersde l'Atlantique

to withstand years of Atlantic batteringsand appears to be very streamlined, butthe superstructure rises almost verticallyfrom the weather deck to the bridge wheremany contemporary ships use a slopingform that mirrors the shape of the hull.

What will not be on view when theship is at sea are the four Mermaid pods –two fixed and two fully azimuthing – orthe three forward bow thrusters (rated at3.2 MW each) that together can eitherpush the ship along at 30 kt or allow it toberth in most ports without the aid oftugs. The QM2 is equipped with anAlstom dynamic position system that willallow the ship to hold its position

continuously almostanywhere or be used forberthing once the exact co-ordinates of the berth havebeen programmed.

Power in plentyPower is supplied by aCODAG arrangementcomprising four Wärtsilä16V46 gensets of 16.8 MWoutput each and twoGeneral Electric LM2500+gas turbines rated at 25A cross-section diagram of QM2’s main features

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SAFETY EQUIPMENT

ATTENTION is rightly beingfocused on marine evacuationsystems (MES) following a fatal

accident on board a P&O ferry during anevacuation drill earlier this year (seeSolutions August 2003), but much moreneeds to be done with regard to lifeboatlaunching arrangements as well. Thenumber of accidents occurring duringlifeboat drills is damaging to the confi-dence of those that may have to use themduring an emergency. MES, whetherchutes or slides, are most commonlyfound on passenger vessels where theyare supposed to enable large numbers ofpeople to be evacuated quickly, but themajority of cargo vessels still rely onlifeboats or liferafts.

The IMO is also concerned that thesame problems plaguing lifeboat launch-ing arrangements are also occurring withthe fast rescue boats which are nowmandatory on ro-ro passenger vessels.Following two years of investigating theproblem, the IMO Maritime SafetyCommittee (MSC) has made somerecommendations in MSC/Circ. 1094issued in June – mostly concerned withpositioning and crew training – but hasrecognised that more needs to be doneand its review of the problem is ongoing.

Manufacturers of life boats are notcomplacent. Ove Roessland, the incoming

chairman of the InternationalLifesaving Appliance Manufac-turers’ Association (ILAMA),has made it a priority to resolvethe issue. In a statement madewhen taking up his position inJuly, Roessland – who is also themanaging director of Schat-Harding – said: “there are toomany accidents occurringbecause critical parts of livesaving appliances are either not servicedor serviced by untrained personnel.”

While that may be true, the UK’sMarine Accident Investigation Branch(MAIB) investigators also blame failureof on-load release mechanisms anddesign faults in the equipment itself,along with insufficient attention by thoseissuing type approval for the hostileenvironment in which lifeboats are storedand used. Another contributing factoridentified by MAIB investigators is thatdavits, lifeboats and winches are oftensourced from different places and thecombinations chosen are not always bestsuited to each other – sometimes beingextremely dangerous.

Considering that davit launchedlifeboats have been part of a ship’sequipment since before the days ofSOLAS, it is puzzling as to why no safermethod of securing and launching hasyet been devised.

Roessland believes that the inspec-tion and servicing regime for liferafts ismuch better and he hopes that can beextended to lifeboats. But while liferaftsmay be safer, there is still an issue ofincompatibility between systems and lifejackets as highlighted by the trainingaccident.

More new ideasAppliance manufacturers have yet todevelop any of the novel systems thathave featured in past issues of Solutions,such as making part of the superstructurea self-contained survival craft or theRescube system – which incidentally stillfeatures on the Norsafe Internet site asthe system of the future. But there aresome items of new equipment that look toaddress particular areas of the market.

Accidents raise safetyconcerns

Hammar has marketed a remote releasesystem for liferafts for some time now. Avacuum pump operates the release unit inwhich a sharp knife slices the rope slingholding the liferaft. It has now developedan electronic version for releasingmultiple liferafts on board passengervessels. The system can operate off theship’s emergency power or a back upbattery and more than one control panelcan be incorporated so that the systemcan be operated from any of severalpoints.

Norwegian safety equipment special-ist Viking has just launched a mini-chuteMES that can operate from the deck ofsmall vessels or a side-shell door forlarger ships. The chute height can varyfrom 5 m to 12 m depending upon themodel selected. Another Norwegiancompany, Norwegian Marine Equipment,has produced what it claims is thesmallest free-fall lifeboat on the marketwith a length of just 4.9 m. The new modelhas a capacity for 19 people and thecompany now claims the largest enclosed(102 persons) as well as the smallestlifeboats on the market. S

NME’s latestaddition isdesigned forsmall ships

Incoming ILAMA chairmanOve Roessland wants toimprove lifeboat safety.

Hammar’s remote-controlled lifeboatrelease system

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SAFETY EQUIPMENT

THERE have been some far reachingchanges to various aspects of the

SOLAS regulations over the past fewyears including a completely revisedChapter II dealing with fire detection,equipment and extinguishing. At the lastmeeting of the IMO’s Maritime SafetyCommittee held in London at the end ofMay, some housekeeping was found tobe necessary in tidying up some of theloose ends of the changes that had cometo light.

Of immediate concern to ship opera-tors is clarification on the number ofEmergency Escape Breathing Devices(EEBDs) that need to be carried. EEBDsbecame compulsory equipment for allships in July 2002 but there has beensome confusion as to carriage require-ments for ships built since July 1, 2003,prompting the IMO to issue its circular1081 in June.

This lists the requirements as:

The IMO hasclarified how

many EEBDsets, such asthis one from

Unitor,should becarried by

ships

Clearing up confusionIMO throws light on safety rules

In accommodation spaces:-Cargo ships� two EEBDs plus one spare EEBDPassenger ships with less than 36passengers� two EEBDs for each main vertical

zone (except those defined inChapter 11-2 regulation 13.3.4.5) plusa total of two spare EEBDs

Passenger ships with more than 36passengers� four EEBDs for each main vertical

zone (except those defined inChapter 11-2 regulation 13.3.4.5) plusa total of two spare EEBDs

In machinery spaces of category Acontaining main engine:-� one EEBD in engine control room (if

located in machinery space);� one EEBD in workshop areas where

there is no direct access fromworkshop to escape way;

� one EEBD on each deck or platform

level near the escape ladder consti-tuting the secondary means ofescape from the machinery space

In machinery spaces of category A notcontaining the main engine:-� one EEBD on each deck or platform

level near the escape ladder consti-tuting the secondary means ofescape from the machinery space

For all machinery spaces, differentnumbers and locations may be deter-mined by the flag state taking intoaccount layout dimensions and manninglevels.

Smoke helmet breathing apparatus ofthe type used by airlines is no longer

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SAFETY EQUIPMENT

IN HIS final address to delegatesattending the IMO’s Maritime SafetyCommittee’s 77th session in London in

May, outgoing secretary general WilliamO’Neil drew attention to statistics issuedby the Lloyd’s Underwriters MarineIntelligence Unit that showed a markeddecline in ship losses over the ten yearperiod from 1991 to 2001. Annual shiplosses for vessels over 500 GT were downfrom 180 in 1991 to just 80 in 2001, ingross tonnage terms the decline was from1.75 M GT to 0.75 M GT.

While those figures may reveal animprovement in terms of property loss,they do not necessarily mean that life onboard ships has become any safer overall.There is concern, for example, over thenumber of accidents involving fatalitiesand injuries that occur during lifeboatdrills which has been estimated at arounda dozen deaths each year and ten times asmany injuries. O’Neil may have had thosefigures in mind when he went on to admitthat the IMO “has not reached the end ofits voyage and more needs to be done tocreate a safer and secure maritime world”.

It is difficult to pinpoint any oneparticular reason why casualty statisticsare showing an improving trend and it isprobably a combination of the ISM codebringing greater safety awareness, PortState Control preventing obviously

permitted on ships built since July 2002,but the IMO is concerned about shipsthat still use this type of equipmentinstead of the now mandatory (on newships) self contained breathing apparatus(SCBA). IMO’s concerns about thedangers associated with smoke helmetshas lead it to issue a circular (MSC/Circ.1085) recommending ship owners toreplace the smoke helmets with SCBAs. Aphase-out of smoke helmets will probablybe welcomed by crew members becauseof the difficulties experienced in usingthem. More importantly, with very fewtraining establishments now givinginstruction in using smoke helmets, theircontinued use on board could be a safetyhazard in itself.

No more spraysJuly 1 this year was also the final date forships built before July 1998 to replace oilfuel pipelines with double skinned pipesand to fit spray guards or shields aroundflanged and threaded connections in highpressure fuel pipes located near hightemperature sources. Small engines ofless than 375 kW may, as an alternative,be enclosed instead of being fitted withjacketed pipes.

In its latest news bulletin, NorwegianP&I club Gard highlights an interestinganomaly in the regulation on pipelinesbetween pre- and post- 1998 built ships.

As well as having to jacket highpressure fuel lines, new ships also haveto treat lubricating and other flammableoil pipes in the same manner, but olderships do not. As Gard points out, if itmakes sense on newer ships then theregulation should also have retroactivevalidity. Lubricating and hydraulic oilsmay have higher flashpoints than fueloil but all will ignite at temperatures ofaround 250°C and, given that anexhaust channel could easily reach400°C, the risk from these oils is alsosignificant.

Gard also makes the valid point thatinsulation on new engines is perfectlyadequate but during maintenance whenthe insulation is removed, it oftenbecomes damaged or some parts are notrefitted correctly increasing the risk offire. The association recommends itsmembers to consider this aspect carefullywhen ensuring that the new pipelineregulations are being implemented and topay particular attention to exhaustinsulation. S

Looking after yourselfSeafarers could do more on safety

unsafe vessels from putting to sea andactions such as IACS’ bulk carrierinitiative and enhanced survey proce-dures. Better equipment and improvedtechnology for detecting fire and otherhazards will also have played a part andwill doubtless continue to do so in thefuture.

Personal safetyWhat cannot be legislated for is theunfathomable personal disregard forsafety that so many seamen seem tohave. It is all too common to see crewmembers working on ships withoutprotective clothing, taking unnecessaryrisks and generally putting their own andothers’ lives in danger. What also needsto be questioned is why so many shipsthat have been forced by a PSC inspec-tion to bring their safety equipment up toscratch are found to offend time and timeagain in subsequent inspections.

It is understandable – but not defensi-ble – that a ship owned by a rogueoperator can be kept short of spare partsand repair equipment. But if serviceable lifesaving equipment were ever on board,then it should be in the crew’s interest tokeep it in that condition. A lack of trainingmay be to blame in some cases, but not onall occasions when simple checks might beall that is needed to be done. S

Not every shiptakes itstraining asseriously asseen here

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SAFETY EQUIPMENT

Security alert

IN ADDITION to what might be considered true safety equipment, the fledgling International Ships and Port facilitiesSecurity (ISPS) Code may have some effect on the equipment

that ships are obliged to carry, although its main thrust isconsidered to be in management and operational areas. Someobservers believe that the IMO has become almost obsessedwith security issues since the end of 2001, to the extent thatmore serious and urgent work is being neglected.

However the ISPS code is now incorporated into ChapterXI-2 of SOLAS and will come into effect on 1 July 2004. Alsoincluded in the new Chapter XI-2 is regulation 5, which willrequire ships to be fitted with some covert alerting device orsystem.

This regulation requires that the equipment or system is inplace on the majority of vessels by 2004 and on all ships by2006. Guidance issued by the IMO suggests three possibleoptions for complying, only one of which will involve fittingadditional equipment to ships. Covert tracking systems havebeen available for some time now from suppliers such asPurplefinder and have been featured in past issues of Solutions.

The devices use one of the Inmarsat systems to send anautomatic position report at pre-programmed intervals. In anemergency, a covert alarm can be activated remotely which willcause the device to send different messages alerting shoreoffices that something is amiss. Typically, the devices are smallshoebox-sized and can be disguised so as not to be obvious.For high risk ships the possibility of fitting more than onedevice could be considered as a fail-safe in case one of them isdiscovered and disconnected by intruders.

The other options suggested by the IMO involve either amodification to normal GMDSS systems for activating alarms orusing key words in routine messages to shore – both of whichpre-suppose that the communication equipment of the shipremains operational but which might not be the case if takenover by intruders. S

Stating the obvious

A MARINE superintendent, who admits that his company isprobably operating at the lower end of the professionalism

scale, told Solutions that the latest amendment to SOLASChapter V Regulation 28 requiring ships to submit daily positionreports is a perfect example of how out of touch some regulatorsare – “because that is something that even poor operators do asa matter of course.”

The daily report, which should contain details of a ship’sposition speed and course along with any other relevant details,is said to be an aid to rescue centres in an emergency. But, asthe superintendent said, that is why EPIRBs and SARTs arerequired equipment under SOLAS. He also questioned how it isto be policed, adding that the ships belonging to any operatorthat did not take such elementary precautions were likely to bein such a bad state of repair that they would be stopped fromsailing by PSC inspectors long before any investigation wasinitiated into whether reports were sent. S

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UPDATE

A RESEARCH project investigatingplankton populations andmovement in the Pacific has

produced some results that may add fuelto the continuing debate on ballast watermanagement. Findings so far suggest thatcoastal organisms can be found in thedeep ocean, raising questions about thelogic of ballast exchange to preventmoving alien species around the globe.

Last month Solutions reported on thesecond GloBallast symposium and makesno apologies for returning to the subjectso soon because of the impendingadoption of the IMO convention nextFebruary, and a possible mandatoryimposition of ballast water exchange bythe US authorities later this year. ThePacific research discussed on thesepages is an extension of a similar projectthat has been operating in the Atlanticsince as far back as 1931. The project iscurrently funded by the Exxon Valdez OilSpill Trustee Council’s Gulf EcosystemMonitoring Program and the North PacificResearch Board.

Dr Sonia Batten, Pacific CPR project(CPR: continuous plankton recorder; seebox) co-ordinator told Solutions that theaim of the project is concerned not withballast water management but naturalchanges in numbers of plankton and themovement of populations around theoceans. Even so, some of its findings mayadd weight to arguments against ballastwater exchange and, some would say, thelikely efficacy of any ballast watertreatment in preventing species transfer.

Plankton are at the start of the foodchain in the ocean. Animal (zoo) planktonfeed on plant (phyto) plankton and inturn they are eaten by fish, sharks andeven large whales. They are incrediblynumerous, mostly microscopic andincapable of much movement simplydrifting around in the currents.

Away from the ballast water issue,interest in plankton has been focusedrecently on the fact that they may begood indicators of the state of theoceans. Because they have little controlover where they go, their numbers anddistribution are determined by the

More news on the aliensResearch could muddy waters in ballast debate

conditions they are exposed to. They alsohave very short life spans – mostly fromdays to a few months, so populationsreact rapidly to changing conditions.These two factors, together with the factthat they form the food chain supportingvaluable fish stocks, make them primecandidates for studying the effects ofclimate change on the oceans.

Industry involvementOne of the pioneering owners – PolarTankers – first became involved in theplankton research in summer 1997 whenits ship the Polar Alaska (then known asthe Arco Alaska) towed a CPR fromValdez, Alaska to Long Beach, California.This was a trial exercise for the Sir AlisterHardy Foundation for Ocean Science(SAHFOS) which runs the planktonrecorder survey in the Atlantic. Thecontribution of Polar Tankers was crucialin getting the Pacific research under way.The collaboration between Polar andSAHFOS gained the support of the NorthPacific Marine Science Organisation.

The open ocean areas of the Pacificare expensive to study and little detail isknown about the marine organisms that

The CPR equipment that ships taking part in the survey would need to have fitted.

CPR research:Can you help?

CONTINUOUS plankton recorders(CPRs for short) were invented in

the 1920s by an English scientist, AlisterHardy. His machines could be towedbehind vessels to collect marine planktonand the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation forOcean Science comemorates his work.

The devices have been used eversince in the North Atlantic and morerecently in the North Pacific. However, itis hugely expensive to send researchships to sea and towing CPRs can bedone just as easily by commercial ships.

So Dr Sonia Batten, who co-ordinatesthe Pacific CPR project, acknowledgesthe assistance of those ship owners thathave already assisted in her research.

If you have ships operating in theregion and are willing to take part in thisproject, contact Dr Batten via e-mail [email protected] and invite othersto offer their services as well.

More information on the CPR projectcan be found at www.sahfos.org S

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UPDATEinhabit areas far from shore. The need toaddress the impacts of climate changeadded impetus to begin a systematicplankton survey in the North Pacific.

The same Valdez to California routehas been sampled five times from thePolar Independence and the PolarAlaska through the spring and summer(when plankton are most abundant). Theprogramme was also joined in 2000 bySeaboard International Shipping whichoperates a regular bulk lumber servicebetween Vancouver and Japan with thero-ro vessel Skaubryn. The ship towed arecorder from Vancouver to Japan initiallyonce in each summer and now three timesper year. This deployment is the longestever tow of a CPR.

Three years of samplesThe plankton collected by the CPRs isprocessed in the SAHFOS laboratory inthe UK and, after three years of sampling,sufficient data is now available to saysomething about the type and quantity ofplankton. This is the first time that suchdata has been available through theseasons on such a large scale in theNorth Pacific. Of particular relevance tothe ballast water debate is the discoverythat coastal plankton are carried far out tosea in eddies of water that spin off thecontinental shelf in winter. One of thearguments advanced in favour of ballastwater exchange is that coastal species arenot present in the deep ocean and clearlythat view now has to be questioned.

According to Dr Batten, the projecthas detected distinct communities madeup of different types of plankton indifferent regions of the North Pacific andone of the most striking results has beenthe variability between years in theamount and type of zooplankton present.In most areas sampled along the routethere was more plankton (in terms ofnumbers) in 1997 than in 2000 and 2001(samples from late summer 2002 are stillbeing analysed). However, the actualamount of plankton (in terms of weight, orbiomass) changed too, and in 1997 therewas less biomass than in 2000 or 2001.

Dr Batten’s latest report shows thatthis is because the type of plankton alsochanged with far fewer small zooplanktonafter 1997 and more larger zooplankton.However, the area close to Alaska seemedto be showing the opposite pattern. Thisshows that the different regions of theNorth Pacific do not change uniformly.

Some scientists nowthink that the oceanchanged suddenly inabout 1999 from thewarm regime of theprevious decade to adifferent, coolregime. Such shiftsare often verysudden and, al-though little isknown about how they are caused, theyseem to affect the whole ecosystem. It isbelieved the cooler regime may be morefavourable to salmon and other largeranimals, which prefer to feed on largerzooplankton.

During 1997 and 1998 the NorthPacific witnessed an El Niño event. ElNiño occurs periodically, every 5-7 years,and in this region is evident as unusuallywarm surface waters. This may have hadsome influence, although as yet research-ers are not sure how that translates intomore plankton. 2002-2003 may also beexperiencing a weak El Niño event and itwill be interesting to see the effects of iton the plankton this year.

Bird and whale dataIn summer 2002 the project expanded withthe collection of seabird and whaleobservations from on board theSkaubryn (in collaboration with the PointReyes Bird Observatory and the Cana-dian Wildlife Service). This was the firsttime that data on the bottom and top ofthe food chain had been simultaneously

An end to voluntary practice

THE US Coast Guard (USCG) isproposing to withdraw self-regulatory privileges from ship

owners and operators because of the lowrate of compliance with ballast watermanagement guidelines.

Currently all ships with ballast watertanks are obliged to perform an open-ocean ballast water exchange if arrivingat a US port from outside the EEZ andproviding the safety of the vessel is notjeopardised.

Investigations have shown that lessthan half of ships comply and, as a result,last month the USCG filed notice on theFederal Register to impose a mandatoryballast management plan for all ships inUS waters. Effectively this would involve

the same conditions that now exist withinthe Great Lakes applying to the wholecountry.

Under the US rules open-oceanexchanges must take place at least 200nautical miles from the coast and in areasexceeding 2,000 m in depth (the IMOdefinition of open-ocean is only 500 mdeep). Exemptions are still possible onsafety grounds and in cases wheredeviating to an area exceeding 2,000 mwould be considered unreasonable.However, the USCG intends to monitor allclaimed exemptions closely and will takeactions in cases of abuse.

The public and industry have untilOctober 28 to respond to the proposalsbefore the USCG acts. S

collected on thescale of an entireocean.

In June 2002more than 112,000birds were countedand recorded andthis number waseven greater in June2003. Work is nowunderway to

compare the seabird communities withthe plankton communities. Dr Battenhopes that this will provide insights intowhy certain bird species are in particularregions, and how this changes with theseasons. Not only would this show theimplications for the fish and whales thatfeed directly on the plankton – where thefood is and when it is there can changedramatically from year to year and monthto month – it may also provide ships witha method of knowing where high densi-ties of plankton are by identifying birdand animal species which feed upon it.

“This survey is already proving to beof great interest to marine biologists andfisheries scientists from around thePacific and we hope it will continue foryears to come,” said Dr Batten. “Thistype of collaboration with industry andthe commercial vessels is one of the fewways that scientists can hope to monitorthe oceanic world and gain an under-standing of what goes on there. Thescience community is indebted to PolarTankers and Seaboard International fortheir help with this work”. S

One of the argumentsadvanced in favour of ballast

water exchange is thatcoastal species are not

present in the deep oceanand clearly that view now has

to be questioned

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SHIP DESCRIPTION

WHILE Whitaker’s latestnewbuild bunker tanker is notbig, it is quite clever. The

Whitchampion is the newest addition tothe UK coastal operator’s fleet and thesecond to be built in Gemi in Tuzla to abespoke design by Delta Marine ofIstanbul. It joins sistershipWhitchallenger, delivered last year, but ithas some key differences from thatoutwardly similar ship. And it may not bethe last for the Turkish yard if the designproves its worth and there is demandfrom charterers for its special skills.

The design could be a solution toincreasingly tighter legislation on singlehull small tankers. The EU, mindful foronce of the practical realities of thebunker business, seems to have backedoff from legislation mandating doublehulls for all tankers, but it will only takeone more incident to change thinkingonce again, at which point this twin-hulled design will be well placed to attractsuitors.

So what is John H Whitaker (Tankers)getting with these innovative ships? At4,450 DWT the vessels are the biggest inthe company’s fleet and will do wondersto its age profile. Coastal operators have

long been squeezed by oil companies andolder tonnage has been a consequence.Now a spate of building looks set to flushout some of the older units as mostmajors distance themselves from the highprofile high risk coastal ownership.

It would take a computer program tosort out the different restrictions thatapply to smaller vessels when consider-ing the optimum size for the trade. It isnot just the physical constraints; draughtis always a weighty issue and overalllength has long been important. But beamtoo is a consideration with canals andlocks on small ports on rivers and evenheight has to be thought of to avoidserious embarrassment with bridges.Equally important are the labyrinthinecalculations needed to ensure that portcharges are optimised since a smalldifference in the gross or net tonnage cansometimes be a real loss of profit on avoyage.

Yet cargo is king and it is its cargocapabilities that separate Whitchampionfrom its sister. With its fully coated tanksand stainless steel deepwell pumps, itmeets Whitaker’s aim, as managingdirector Mark Whitaker explained, ofwanting maximum flexibility in the clean

oil trades, even though its first contractwith Texaco sees it carrying fuel oil.

Versatile tanksThe vessel is well equipped to service thedemands of the products trades, as wellas the bunker trades, with seven sets ofcargo tanks, each fitted with individualdeepwell pumps and able to load, carry,and discharge seven grades fully segre-gated. Following some expensive prob-lems with hydraulics on some of its olderships, it was decided to drive thedeepwell pumps electrically using “softstart” technology, which gives maximumflexibility from the ship’s four generators,Whitaker explained. Pump motors wereup-rated to deal with the expected servicein heavy fuel oil and discharge rates of upto 700 tonnes/h can be achieved.

All cargo tanks are served by indi-vidual Hamworthy KSE Svanehoj electri-cally driven deep-well pumps each with amaximum discharge rate of 200 m³/h, eachwith speed control via individual fre-quency controllers and fitted with anintegral compressed air-driven strippingsystem. All pumps and associatedpipework is stainless steel and the designallows the easy dismantling of the pump

A small ship with big ideasWhitchampion sets a new standard

Whitchampion’s versatile cargo options furtherdevelop Whitaker’s bespoke design ideas

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SHIP DESCRIPTION


head for maintenance. As back-up, abulkhead valve between each pair ofwing tanks allows free flow betweentanks if necessary to balance loading ordischarge or as an emergency systemshould a pump fail. As the vessel isinitially planned for use in the bunkertrade, there is also an in-tank blendingsystem allowing the efficient productionof different specification fuels.

Cargo heating is via conventional in-tank coils using isothermic oil heatedthrough a Wanson Thermopac boilerrated at 1,162 kW – powerful enough toraise the cargo temperature by about10°C per day and maintain a temperatureof 70°C throughout. All deck pipework isstainless steel and a variety of crosso-vers at the manifolds allows considerableflexibility. Hose handling is effected witha Mariner electric hydraulic crane locatedon the centre line forward of the manifoldand with a capacity of 0.9 MT at 18 mradius. Further small cranes are fitted aftfor stores handling.

The vessel is also fitted with four100 m³ tanks designed for carrying lubeoils served by a 50 m³/h pump located ina small pump room forward of the engineroom. These tanks will be valuable forproviding lube oil services to ships that

PrincipalParticularsWhitchampion

Length, oa 84.95 mLength, bp 80.80 mBeam, mld 15.00 mDraught, mld 6.30 mDepth, mld 8.60 mDeadweight 4,450 tonneGross register 2,965 GTNet register 1,355 NTCargo capacity 5,094 m³Main engine MaK 6M25Output 1,850 kW @ 750 rpmSpeed, 85 per cent MCR 10.9 ktClass LR +100A1, Double Hull OilTanker, ESP, +LMC, UMS, NAABSADesign Delta Marine, Istanbul

are being bunkered by the Whitchampion.There is also a slop tank on board.

With coatings very much part of thelife of a vessel, Whitaker has chosen afull epoxy coating from International Paintin all the cargo tanks, specifyingIntershield 300, a coating that is expectedto be easy to clean after carrying blackoils or clean products and to offer goodheat resistance properties.

Whitchampion’s cargo tanks include stainless steeldeepwell pumps to handle clean oil cargoes

In fact, Intershield 300 is widely usedon the ship. The lube oil tanks are alsocoated with it, as too are the ballast tanksand decks, a choice made to obtain “themaximum level of protection and ease ofmaintenance,” explained Whitaker.

Uprated engineThe owner has opted for an MaK mainengine, based on its experience withthese in other vessels and their preva-lence in the second hand ship market. A

The choice of an MaK engine was basedon good experience of this make. The6M25 model has a longer stroke andslower speed than the 8M20 first proposed

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SHIP DESCRIPTION

Thruster powerWHITCHAMPION and its sister eachboast a very high powered bowthrusterthat can thrust through 360 deg. TheVerhaar Omega jet-type unit can absorb441 kW and this is enough to provideget-you-home power sufficient for aspeed of 4.5 kts.

But, unlike many thruster installa-tions, this one is powered independ-ently of the engine room; “we wanted tobe absolutely sure we could limp homeif we had an engineroon fire,” saidWhitaker.

To achieve this, it is powered by itsown 441 kW Cummins KTA19mk3 dieselengine, rather than by an electrical orhydraulic link from the main engine. Sothe thruster could be valuable if themain engine failed or if the propellerwere damaged or fouled. “This cannotbe said for conventional PTO ‘get-you-home’ systems,” said Whitaker. S

WHITAKER Tanker’s require-ments were straightforward:“We wanted a simple, efficient

and reliable ship,” said Mark Whitaker, itsmanaging director, to Solutions. Its latestship, Whitchampion, shares the same hulldesign as last year’s deliveryWhitchallenger, but it has a few impor-tant differences that give it additionalflexibility.

Both ships have been designedspecifically to meet Whitaker’s operatingrequirements. For example, their length of84.95 m was set by the need to accessPeel in the Isle of Man, which was thesmallest port that charterer Texaco servedat the time and allows a maximum lengthof 85 m at its tanker facilities.

Ironically, by the time the first shipwas delivered, Texaco no longer called atPeel, as the power station it served nolonger used fuel oil. Instead, the oil majorserves the port of New Ross in Irelandwhere a 100 m maximum length applies, sothe ship is still well suited for thisalternative port.

“The basic concept of the two vessels

The deck layout wasarranged to make itsimple for crew tomove across it

Double hulled but single minded

single MaK 6M25 four stroke dieselengine drives a four bladed variable pitchKamewa propeller at 210 rpm through aRolls Royce Ulstein reduction gearbox.

But this was not its first choice;initially Whitaker planned to use an MaK8M20 machine, but decided to opt for thesix-cylinder longer stroke and slowerrevving M25.

This has the advantage working at thelower end of its power range rather thanthe top end as would be the case with the8M20. In addition, its rated output of1,850 kW at 750 rpm allows more eco-nomical performance at slightly reducedrevs, leading to reduced maintenance. Itburns 5.9 tonnes per day of gas oil,although the engine can burn heavy fueloil up to 700 cSt.

ManoeuvrabilityCoastal voyages with frequent port callsand the demands of the bunkering trademean that manoeuvrability is vital. Sosteering is via a high angle flap rudder,assisted by a 360 deg thruster fittedforward. As explained below, this unit isalso intended to provide get-you-homepropulsion in the event of a main machin-ery failure.

Electrically driven pumps, the thrust-ers and the deck machinery require a

secure source of power and the vessel isfitted with a single shaft-driven LeroySomer/LSA 47.1 M6 alternator with arated output of 292 kW at 1,500 rpm. Inaddition, two Cummins/KTA19D(M)

diesel engines with output of 400 kW at1,500 rpm drive twin Newage Stamford/HCM 534C alternators each with anoutput of 304 kW. An 80-kW emergencygenerator is also fitted. S

was to make them as flexible as possible,”Whitaker said. Based on the maximumlength set by Peel, the ships’ Turkishdesigner, Delta Marine, was the given thebrief to provide as much deadweight aspossible.

Which it did. But the shipyardinsisted that the vessel was model tested,“and thank goodness we did because theresult of this was that the hull wasimproved, reducing the fuel consumptionby 20 per cent and giving the addedbonus of an extra knot of speed,” saidWhitaker, “which made the $40,000investment look very reasonable.”

Many other aspects of the designalso incorporated details that Whitakerspecified, based on its experience withother ships. Deck layout, for example, isarranged to make it simple and safe forcrew to move from one side to the other.The choice of MaK as the engine supplierwas also based on the owner’s goodexperience of its machines and itsunusual bow thruster arrangement (seebox, left) also echoes installations onprevious ships in its fleet. S

SHIP DESCRIPTION

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EQUIPMENTLatest sounds

AN UPDATED version of itsultrasonic thickness gauge hasbeen released by Cygnus

Instruments.The new Cygnus 3 Ultrasonic Thick-

ness Gauge uses the Multiple Echotechnique recommended by class societiesand allows metal thickness measurementsto be taken whilst completely ignoring thecoatings, only the metal thickness ismeasured. This means more time can bespent on checking the condition of themetal rather than having to remove andrepair perfectly good coatings. It also hasa datalogging feature that allows measure-ments to be downloaded to a PC in aformat compatible with most standardsoftware packages.

The new Cygnus 3 Datalogger issupplied as a complete ready to use kitincluding probe, software and spareparts. It comes in its own carry case witha two year warranty. S

The new Cygnus 3 ultrasonic thicknessgauge does not require coating removalfor accurate results

A NEW version of its oil dischargemonitoring and control system is

available from VAF Instruments.The new Oilcon Mk6 monitors ballast

water during deballasting operations forcontamination by oil using the company’ssame patented multiple scattering technol-ogy as earlier models but is much smallerand lighter than those and incorporates anumber of new features. A new method ofsignal processing enables more flexibleinstallation possibilities and, with moretankers being built without pump rooms,this gives the Mark 6 a considerableadvantage over the older fibre optic signaltransfer method. In addition, the companyclaims that using LEDs indicates longer lifeexpectancy from the sensing system.

VAF says the Oilcon Mk6 satisfiesIMO MARPOL Resolution A586(14). S

Upgrade forballast monitor

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INNOVATIONS

NEW testing methods developedby Wyko allows rapid testing ofhigh voltage (HV) equipment

such as motors, switchgear and trans-formers without the need to take thesystem out of service during tests.

HV equipment is traditionally testedby dielectric loss analysis, a process thatrequires equipment to be shut down andthen stressed up to operational voltage,which is time consuming and potentiallydestructive and which requires a largeamount of testing and support equip-ment. Because of these factors it is quiteusual for some ships to have their HVequipment tested only duringdrydockings and often only at the five-yearly special surveys.

Wyko’s new system relies instead onRogowski coils that can be permanentlyinstalled on the equipment under test andconnected up to a compact suitcase-sizedpartial discharge detector when required.Rogowski coils work by sensing themagnetic field caused by a currentwithout the need to make any electricalcontact with the conductor. An air coredcoil is placed round the conductor in atoroidal fashion so that the alternatingmagnetic field produced by the current

High Voltage tests withoutshutdowns

induces a voltage in the coil that iselectronically converted to provide anoutput reproducing the current waveform.

The partial discharge detector canalso be used with other input methodssuch as capacitative couplers, radiofrequency current transformers andtransient earth voltage probes, all ofwhich are used in the alternative methodand which may already have their ownmonitoring points on the HV equipment.

Wyko claims the new equipment candetect any defects the traditional methodwould have found but ship owners will bemore prepared to make regular checks. S

Scrapedownexpenses

A TECHNICALLY advanced programto optimise cylinder oil feed rates in

low-speed diesel engines has beenintroduced by ExxonMobil MarineLubricants (EMML).

The ‘Feed Rate Optimization’ programis designed to help minimise operatingexpenses by analysing scrapedown oilcollected from the engine’s scavengespaces as a way to detect changes in thecondition of an engine’s cylinders and tobalance feed rates with lubricant selec-tion. Reduced sulphur HFO is becomingmore common and can cause suddencylinder wear unless a correct lubricant isused or cylinder feed rates are adjusted.

Under EMML’s program, samples ofscrapedown oil can be sent ashore for fullanalysis but the program also provides aportable analyser for use on boardallowing ship’s engineers to have an earlywarning of cylinder wear. The MobilgardScrapedown Analyzer (MSA) instantlymeasures and displays the iron content ofa used cylinder oil sample while a SignumOnboard Test Kit monitors lubricants foralkalinity retention (TBN), water contami-nation and changes in viscosity.

Keeping an MSA Logbook enablescrew members to store results, graphtrends and analyse relationships betweenvariables. EMML claims that all the toolsare easy to use. S

On boardanalysis ofscrapedownoil usingExxonMo-bil’s newsystem candetectchanges incylindercondition

A SERVICE that can provide instant papercharts is being tested by US companyOceanGrafix.

Using the latest advances in digitalprint technology, OceanGrafix has begunthe tests at two locations in Louisianaand expects to expand the service if testsare successful.

Ships equipped with an ECDIS canalready receive instant updates in avariety of ways but the majority of shipsstill use paper charts and finding a

Charts on demand in UScurrent chart at short notice can bedifficult. OceanGrafix’s remote printservice is being run in cooperation withthe National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration and produces fullycorrected and up-to-date US charts onwater-resistant or laminated paper.

The OceanGrafix, Charts-on-Demandnautical charts are fully corrected and up-to-date at the time of printing and includethe latest local and NIMA Notice toMariners Corrections. S

HV systems can be checked using a set ofsmall coils and Wyko’s compact detector

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Documents

A double hull and single vision Europe clings to cruising