Umoe Mandal in Norway has unveiled a new design, the Wavecraft, a series of high-speed, all-composite service vessels designed for fast crew transport. The company says the high-speed craft offers offshore operators “a long range economical, commercially feasible and safe alternative to helicopters.”
The company says the Wavecraft “delivers substantially Continue reading “New CTV unveiled by Umoe Mandal”
Workers on drilling rigs and offshore wind farms can hopefully look forward to a more pleasant commute to work with considerably lower risk of seasickness thanks to a special, innovative ship built by VEKA Group. VEKA will be building two trimarans intended specifically for transporting personnel and freight to offshore wind farms. These are the first hybrid trimarans in the world. Transporting offshore personnel takes place mainly by catamaran. These will be VEKA’s first trimarans.
Most of the innovations are intended to make the so-called workboat more stable and more comfortable, thereby reducing the risk of seasickness. For example, the ships have lower windows than is customary, so that the passengers have a better view. The third bow is designed to ensure additional stability and comfort. There are also innovative stabilisers built into the hull.
Wärtsilä has developed a new water lubricated seal, Enviroguard SLR, which provides cost-effective reliability for small workboats.
Available in nine standard sizes that suit 75mm-306mm of shaft size, the new seal is expected to provide more reliability to smaller workboats, fishing boats, motorised barges, and super yachts.
The Wärtsilä Enviroguard SLR water lubricated seal is also designed to survive large shaft movements and to tolerate aggressive waters that are heavy with silt or sand.
Continue reading “New water lubricated seal for workboats developed by Wärtsilä”
On 9 March 2016, three French fishing vessels sought shelter from bad weather in Dartmouth harbour, on the south-west coast of England. One of the vessels, Saint Christophe 1, was directed to berth alongside a quay wall and when the tide went out it grounded and capsized alongside. Saint Christophe 1 subsequently flooded and sank with the incoming tide, and was declared a constructive total loss.
Safety issues
The lack of effective communication between harbour authority staff and vessel’s crew failed to ensure a common understanding of the fact that the boat would ground at low water
The assumption that the crew understood the information provided by the harbour staff, prevented further safety checks from being made
Continue reading “MAIB report into the grounding and capsize of berthed trawler Saint Christophe 1”
The MAIB has issued its report into the capsizing and sinking of the scallop dredger JMT in 2015. The report will be of particular interest to surveyors given that the incident raises issues around the effect modifications made potentially had on the stability of the craft.
During the afternoon of 9 July 2015, routine contact was lost with the skipper and crewman on board the 11.4m scallop dredger JMT that was fishing off Plymouth, UK. A search and rescue operation was initiated the following morning when the vessel did not return alongside as expected.
Continue reading “Report on the sinking of the scallop dredger JMT published by the MAIB”
In one of its regular safety bulletins, the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has issued new information on an incident involving parts falling from a crane – in this instance a steel sign. IMCA says that this is not the first time this has happened and individuals may wish to review this in light of other similar reported signage dropping incidents.
A piece of metal fell from a crane boom. The incident occurred on a vessel whilst alongside during the testing of the luffing motors’ braking system on the main crane. During this testing the crane boom made an uncontrolled descent into its crutch, resulting in a 60 kg steel sign falling 15m down to the deck. Investigation revealed that the sign was fixed by 4 x stitch welds, of which three were completely rusted away.
Continue reading “Beware signage dropping from a crane boom warns IMCA”
Cheetah Marine has built a hydrogen-fuel catamaran which demonstrates the potential of zero CO2 technology in the marine industry. It is believed to be the first hydrogen powered craft.
The 9.95m catamaran, designed and built at Cheetah Marine’s workshops on the Isle of Wight in the UK, features a Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (HICE). The Honda outboard works in the same way as traditional petrol engine, except it burns hydrogen and produces harmless water vapour as the only emission.
Continue reading “Cheetah Marine builds the world’s first hydrogen powered boat”
The MAIB has now released its report into the incident in which skipper, Jamie Kerr, died on the Carol Anne when the crane fitted to the vessel collapsed leaving the reader in little doubt that this was an avoidable accident. The installation of a crane to a workboat adds significant challenges for the marine surveyor when assessing the structure as this report highlights.
On 30 April 2015, an Atlas lorry loader crane fitted on the workboat Carol Anne collapsed while being used to offload a net at a fish farm at Balure on Loch Spelve, Scotland. The crane fell directly onto the workboat’s skipper, who was declared dead at the scene. The crane had been in operation since its installation just six and a half weeks earlier. It was not overloaded when it failed.
Continue reading “Death of workboat Carol Anne skipper could have been avoided says MAIB Report”
Sørlandet Knowledge Foundation and the Regional Research Council Agder has granted ESNA funding to develop the next generation of Surface Effect Ships for offshore service operations. ESNA, an independent naval architects and ship design company for high speed vessels, specialises in air cushioned catamaran Surface Effect Ships.
ESNA operates at the crossroads between advanced military and commercial high speed craft technology and the market for offshore renewable energy and maritime operations. The company develops designs with outstanding performance, seakeeping and comfort, higher speed and with lower power consumption and emissions for a greener future.
Continue reading “ESNA granted R&D funding for Surface Effect Ships”
A team of inventors from Sussex, England, has developed a solar and wind-powered boat that can suck up plastic waste.
Bluebird Marine Systems unveiled their proof of concept at the government funded Innovate UK show in London in late 2015 and are now crowd funding the construction of a full-scale vessel.
SeaVax, when built, it will be 44 meters (144 feet) long, have a suction head some 13.5 meters (44 foot) wide, and will be fully autonomous. Deck-mounted solar panels and two wind turbines will feed power to electric pumps and filters that will suck up plastic solids and micro plastics.
Continue reading “Solar powered SeaVax hoover concept set to clean up the oceans”
At some time in his career the Diagnostic Engineer may well have to examine the running of a compression ignition engine. Many of the defects that occur on such units are down to wear in the main bearings causing the crankshaft to change its longitudinal straightness. Usually the first diagnostic test on such an engine is to take a series of measurements between the crank webs at various points round the circle of rotation called somewhat in correctly crankshaft deflections. If a driving engine is of the compression ignition type with a cylinder bore above about 250 mm (10 inches), it is also necessary to consider the alignment of its crankshaft. Below that size, the overall stiffness and small size of the unit and the fact that the crankshaft itself is an integral forging make the measurement of crankshaft deflections both extremely difficult and unnecessary.
In response to a string of major incidents, trade association Interferry has produced operational best practice guidance for fire safety on RO/RO ship vehicle deck.
The guidance is based on input from a questionnaire sent to association members last year following at least seven serious fire incidents on ROpax ferries in Europe since 2010. The two most recent incidents resulted in fatalities and total loss of the ships, prompting the initiative by Interferry’s Operators Policy Committee to identify and publicize a common set of best practice mitigating actions.
Continue reading “Best practices for RO/RO vehicle deck fire safety released”
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