BPZ chartered tanker sinks after fire

A Peruvian Navy tanker chartered by Houston based BPZ Energy caught fire and sank on Wednesday, Jan 30, injuring 12 sailors.

The tanker "Supe" was moored near the Corvina CX-11 platform, being used to store oil from the Corvina's 21XD and 14D wells, when it caught fire at 8:55 am EST. The tanker was directed away and sank, around 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the platform. The 12 injured sailors were evacuated to local hospitals. So far, two have been discharged, while 10 have been moved to Lima for further care. The Supe had a 7,500 barrel capacity but was holding only 1,300 barrels at the time of the fire, most of which is believed to have been destroyed. Initial reports show that environmental damage has been controlled. There has been no reported damage to BPZ's platforms or equipment, and their tender assist and transport barges were not involved. Production from 21XD and 14D wells, about 4,200 b/d, and testing operations on 18XD well have been suspended pending further assessment.
Read More

BC Ferries puts four vessels up for sale

BC Ferries has announced that four surplus vessels are being offered for sale.

With three new Coastal Class vessels and an intermediate size vessel joining the BC Ferries fleet this year, the Company intends to retire four older vessels by the fall of 2008. The 'Queen of Tsawwassen', one of BC Ferries' original vessels, along with the 'Queen of Esquimalt', 'Queen of Saanich' and 'Queen of Vancouver' are all being offered for sale. The vessels range in age from 45 to 48 years old. 'The sale of these four vessels marks a new phase in the evolution of BC Ferries,' said David L. Hahn, BC Ferries' President and CEO. 'These four ships have served British Columbians and visitors well, however with the arrival of new vessels better suited to current customer expectations and business needs, the time has come for these vessels to be used elsewhere.' BC Ferries is seeking expressions of interest from prospective buyers at this time. Two offers have already been received for the 'Queen of Tsawwassen' and BC Ferries has received numerous enquires regarding the other vessels. All of these vessels are currently operating and are certified by Transport Canada.
Read More

MSC Cruises and Aker Yards, France complete world's first cruise ship newbuilding with Intersleek 900

MSC Cruises, Italy's largest styled cruise company and one of the biggest cruise ship operators in Europe is the world's first company to apply the revolutionary, biocide free, foul release coatings system Intersleek 900 on a cruise ship newbuilding.

The application on the underwater hull of the 23 knot, 92,400 GT poetry of the seas 'MSC Poesia', scheduled to debut in March 2008, was carried out at pre-delivery drydocking of the vessel in St Nazaire, France in early January 2008 by Aker Yards, one of the world's largest builders of sophisticated ships. Mr Giorgio Fabbi, Senior Sales Manager, International Paint Italy said, 'Intersleek 900 is an excellent product, providing significant performance and environmental benefits for both the ship operator and the shipyard. This successful first of a kind application was only made possible however by a first class team effort from all parties involved. Intersleek 900 is a new, unique patented biocide free fluoropolymer foul release coating representing the very latest advances in foul release technology. Other benefits of Intersleek 900 include no leaching of biocides into the sea, reduced paint consumption at the next docking and enhanced Corporate Social Responsibility through an improved environmental profile.
Read More

Dredge vessel Queen of the Netherlands arrives

The Queen of the Netherlands, one of the world's most technologically advanced dredging vessels, arrives in Melbourne.

The Queen of the Netherlands will be the main vessel to undertake dredging as part of the Channel. The vessel will be highly visible as she transits Port Phillip Heads. Mr. Stephen Bradford, CEO of the Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) said: 'The 'Queen of the Netherlands' is state of the art dredging technology and is recognized as an environmentally responsible and sustainable method of dredging in the bay. The vessel has had to comply with extensive environmental, social and economic criteria and has been assessed in line with world's best practice. 'The vessel will operate under what are quite possibly the strictest environmental controls ever seen for a dredging project anywhere in the world, and its technologically advanced features will minimize disruption to the bay to as low as practicably possible.' The Queen of the Netherlands is a self–propelled, highly manoeuvrable vessel known as a Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge. The advantage of this vessel is its ability to load its own hold or 'hopper' while moving or 'trailing' slowly along a pre–set course. The vessel removes material from the seabed via suction pipes that lead from its side. The material is then stored on the vessel and deposited at a designated location in the bay.
Read More

Sunken cruise ship located

The Royal Navy Ice patrol ship 'HMS Endurance', which amongst other tasks is carrying survey work in the Antarctic, has located the wreck of a cruise liner, which sank last year.

The work was carried out on behalf of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office to improve Safety of Life at Sea products and services. Merchant Vessel 'Explorer' hit ice and sank just south of the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula in November with all 86 passengers and 66 crew safely rescued. Whilst conducting hydrographic survey work of the area 'Endurance' pinpointed the position of the wreck. The wreck's position is at the north-west end of the Bransfield Strait, and was located at a depth of approximately 1130 metres. The actual location is at 620 24.2929' south 570 11.7748' west. It is judged that the depth of the wreck showed that it presented no hazard to shipping. At the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 'HMS Endurance' undertook a search for the wreck of 'Explorer' to ascertain its position, assess the likely condition of the vessel on the seabed and observe any ongoing fuel seepage or other evidence of pollution. The survey work contributes markedly to the Safety of Life At Sea in the Antarctic region, which is taking on more significance with the annually increasing number of passengers in cruise liners visiting this breathtaking wilderness.
Read More

Historic ships handed £31m boost

Two of the UK's most famous historic ships are to be given a £31m boost out of lottery funds.

Some £21m has been awarded to the world's oldest surviving warship, the 16th Century Mary Rose, to build a museum around her in Portsmouth. Another £10m will go to help restore the Victorian tea clipper the Cutty Sark at Greenwich in southeast London. The ship was badly damaged by fire in dry dock part way through a £25m conservation project in May last year. The Mary Rose was Henry VIII's flagship and spent centuries at the bottom of the Solent after sinking in 1545. It was raised to the surface in 1982 after being rediscovered, and is now one of Portsmouth's major tourist attractions. The Cutty Sark was due to reopen to the public in November 2009 but work will take another year to complete following the fire. Scott & Linton in Dumbarton to transport tea from China built the 900-tonne ship in 1869.

Read More

Progress in simulation-based ship design

Simulation-based ship design increasingly replaces traditional-based design.

Extensive experience gathered over the last ten years on this topic enables Germanischer Lloyd, as one of the world's leading technical supervisory organizations, to present various approaches and state-of-the-art at the Pacific 2008 trade fair. The presentation ''Progress in simulation-based design'' took place today at the Maritime Engineering Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour. Ship designing processes are iterative, and subdivided into several phases during which the design is developed in increasing degrees of detail. In his presentation Karsten Fach, head of competence centre for engineering services at GL, focused on one basic activity in modern ship design: analysis. Germanischer Lloyd developed a numerical procedure based on the combined use of a boundary element method (BEM), a statistical analysis technique using random process theory, and an extended RANSE solver to obtain accurate responses of ships in a seaway. In simulations, forces exerted by the sea cause the vessel to move, exciting sloshing in the tanks. Extensive experience allows Germanischer Lloyd the numerical prediction of sloshing loads in ships with great confidence.

Read More