Fast or Slow Steaming?

It is a mark of how the world has turned on its head that the hare is in danger of being ridiculed by the tortoise.
In little more than a year, slow steaming has become a cornerstone in shipping’s recovery. The logic seems unassailable:
it soaks up extra capacity and saves enormous amounts of fuel, providing a useful counterweight to bunker prices
that are once again heading north.

Additionally, as has been previously noted in these pages, slow-steaming also provides shipowners an unexpected
green card; the industry’s CO2 emissions collectively decline, it looks as if they are doing their bit to save
the planet. Bizarrely, the shipping industry is acting as one.

Meanwhile, the exact position of shippers is unclear precisely because one doesn’t exist. They too get to wave
the green card, but social responsibility remains secondary to survival and plenty of shippers are suffering as
much as the carriers.

Slow-steaming entails higher costs. Inventory that spends a week longer at sea is effectively cash thrown overboard,
although that was mitigated in the early days of slow steaming as slower services came with a reduced freight rate.
Not any more, rates are up and transit times longer than ever – if containers were passengers there’d be an outcry.

Some shippers will take it on the chin; others will turn the screw on their logistics providers to claw back the
time lost at sea; and some might even return to air freight.

Into this confusion steps the prospect of faster services returning to the seas. It is far too early to make a
judgement on the possible success of Horizon Line’s fast US west coast-China service, due to launch in December,
but shippers will welcome another alternative.

Maritime-connector.com

IMO: Replacing unsafe lifeboat release mechanisms – guidelines agreed by Sub-Committee

Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment (DE), 53rd session: 22 – 26 February 2010

Replacing unsafe lifeboat release mechanisms – guidelines agreed by Sub-Committee

Draft guidelines to ensure release mechanisms for lifeboats are replaced with those complying with new, stricter safety standards have been agreed by IMO’s Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment (DE), 53rd session, in order to reduce the number of accidents involving lifeboats, particularly those which have occurred during drills or inspection.

The draft Guidelines for evaluation and replacement of lifeboat on-load release mechanisms will be submitted to the Maritime Safety Committee in May (MSC 87) for approval, alongside the anticipated adoption of amendments to the International Life-Saving Appliances (LSA) Code and the Recommendation on testing of LSA, which require safer design of on-load release mechanisms, as well as a related draft amendment to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), chapter III Life-saving appliances, which will require lifeboat on-load release mechanisms not complying with the new LSA Code requirements to be replaced no later than the next scheduled dry-docking of the ship following entry into force of the SOLAS amendments.

The Sub-Committee recommended that Administrations and shipowners be strongly urged to use the guidelines to evaluate existing lifeboat on-load release mechanisms at the earliest available opportunity, in advance of the entry into force of the new SOLAS and LSA Code amendments.

The Sub-Committee also agreed draft amendments to the Revised recommendation on testing of life-saving appliances concerning test procedures for lifeboat hooks, for adoption by MSC 87.

This new package of amendments and guidelines addressing lifeboat release mechanisms follows intensive work within the DE Sub-Committee and by the MSC, over a number of years, to address the significant number of serious injuries and fatalities which had been occurring during lifeboat drills and inspections.

Measures which have already been adopted/approved, to address the prevention of accidents involving lifeboats, include:

May 2004: MSC 78 adopts amendments to SOLAS chapter III Regulation 19 (Emergency training and drills) and Regulation 20 (Operational readiness, maintenance and inspections), concerning the conditions in which lifeboat emergency training and drills should be conducted, which introduce changes to the operational tests to be conducted during weekly and monthly inspections, so as not to require the assigned crew to be on board in all cases (the amendments entered into force on 1 July 2006);
May 2006: MSC 81 approves guidelines to implement the 2004 SOLAS amendments: Guidelines for periodic servicing and maintenance of lifeboats, launching appliances and on-load release gear and Guidelines on safety during abandon ship drills using lifeboats (MSC.1/Circ.1206; while MSC.1/Circ.1206/Rev.1, issued in 2009, updated the guidelines);
December 2006: MSC 82 amends SOLAS regulation III/19.3.3.4 concerning provisions for the launch of free-fall lifeboats during abandon-ship drills, to allow, during such drills, for the lifeboat to either be free-fall launched with only the required operating crew on board, or lowered into the water by means of the secondary means of launching without the operating crew on board, and then manoeuvred in the water by the operating crew. Also, the LSA Code is amended to require safer design of on-load release mechanisms (hooks) of lifeboats (the amendments to SOLAS and the LSA Code entered into force on 1 July 2008);
May 2008: MSC 84 approves Interim recommendation on conditions for authorization of service providers for lifeboats, launching appliances and on-load release gear (MSC.1/Circ.1277); and
June 2009: MSC 86 approves Guidelines for the fitting and use of fall preventer devices (MSC.1/Circ.1327).

http://www.imo.org/

NATO Ship sinks a Pirate Mothership

The Seattle Times is reporting:
A NATO destroyer has sunk a pirate mothership in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast after allowing the crew to leave, the alliance said Monday.

Shona Lowe, an anti-piracy spokeswoman, said the HDMS Absalon – the Danish flagship of the three-vessel NATO flotilla in the region – disrupted a pirate operation by scuttling one of the large boats used by Somali gangs to transport attack teams to piracy hunting areas far off the coast.

The complete Seattle Times post by Slobodan Lekic is here »

On this day 6th march 1987

Herald of Free Enterprise

Is it really 23 years since the Herald Capsized? I still remember clearly where I was actually. I was on my way to the Gym that night.
I was only 17 years old. The weird thing was, I knew the Herald...I had sailed on her at least 3 times. I used to live in Germany & we would sail to the UK to visit family regularly......

Read a survivors story here.

Wärtsilä Powers Polar Supply & Research Vessel

Photo courtesy Wärtsilä Corporation

Wärtsilä has signed a contract with the STX Finland Oy shipyard in Rauma, Finland, to deliver four Wärtsilä 32 engines for a Polar Supply and Research Vessel. The owner of the vessel will be the Republic of South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs, and it will be operated by SMIT Amandla Marine, of South Africa. The vessel's crew will be trained at the Wärtsilä Land and Sea Academy in Turku, Finland.

"This vessel order is one of the biggest single trade agreements ever between Finnish industry and South Africa, and we hope it will lead to additional business. We believe that by providing reliable technology and the highest levels of quality and service, we will benefit also in the future," said Mr Timo Suistio, Director, Rauma shipyard of STX Finland Oy.

The ice-strengthened vessel will be powered by four 6-cylinder in-line Wärtsilä 32 engines. It will be approximately 440 ft long and will have accommodation for 45 crew and about 100 researchers and passengers. Construction of the vessel began in January 2010 and will be launched in March 2012. Wärtsilä's engine deliveries are scheduled to take place in February 2011.

The vessel is being built for research activities and expeditions, but since it will be used to carry equipment and scientists working on the South African National Antarctic Program, it will also have ice-breaking capabilities. Expeditions will take place during the Antarctic summer, starting at the end of December and continuing until the beginning of March. During the remainder of the year, it will serve as a supply vessel for three research centers located on Antarctic islands.

As a mobile research facility, the new vessel will be equipped with a laboratory so that scientists can conduct marine research while on board. Weather data for meteorological institutes around the world will also be collected. Classified as a passenger ship, the new vessel will feature some of the facilities found on cruise ships, including comfortable passenger accommodation, a gym, a library and a small hospital. It will also have a shelter and landing area for two Puma class helicopters.

website