The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has issued a safety alert regarding an incident where an explosion and fire aboard a liftboat injured workers. ΒSEE has recently investigated an explosion and subsequent fire that occurred on a liftboat during well cleanup and testing operations. Two contract workers suffered second-degree burns.
This event underscores a multitude of critical shortcomings in procedural controls, equipment readiness, and emergency response during offshore oil and gas operations. The explosion was caused by a gas accumulation on the liftboat deck during the draining of fluids from a Continue reading “Safety alert issued following explosion and fire aboard liftboat”
The US National Transportation Safety Board (
The Nordic Association of Marine Insurers (Cefor) has released its 2024 hull trends from the Nordic Marine Insurance Statistics (
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (
IACS, the membership organisation for the world’s leading classification societies, has published its 2024 Annual Review, which highlights the central role played by IACS in supporting safety standards in global shipping.
BMP Maritime Security has been published by a series of industry Associations, including BIMCO, ICS, IMCA, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO & OCIMF supported by over forty maritime stakeholders. It is a consolidated and enhanced publication Best Management Practices (BMP) for Maritime Security (MS).
Marine surveyors and boat owners are regularly heard to say there is a minimum 4.0mm of hull thickness required at time of survey of a steel narrowboat. Some brokers even publish videos of such information, with some surveyors enforcing it (Whilton Marina, 2012 and 2016). Boaters are subject to it and repair often follows. In a recent article, Geoff Waddington (2021) explains there is confusion in the industry about wastage limits, and consequently acceptable residual hull plate thicknesses, and opinions among surveyors ‘vary wildly’, with some quoting 3mm acceptable minimum plate thickness, others using percentage loss. This short paper explores what a standardised acceptable limit for diminution, and therefore residual steel plate thickness for narrowboats, could be. It describes a variety of methods of calculating the design plate thicknesses (scantlings) and the minimum acceptable residual plate thickness. In doing so, this paper aims to serve as a guide for inland waterways marine surveyors, boat owners, repairers, and insurers alike.