Seacurus Top Ten Daily News Stories 27/08/2014
1. Risk of Tiredness Pervades
The Japanese Safety Board has published a revealing and fully illustrated account of an alarming event which took place earlier this year, when a “small” containership – in reality a sizeable enough vessel – loomed out of the pre-dawn darkness in the Inland Sea and smashed into a sea wall at 15 knots. The lone watchkeeper, sitting in the pilot chair, had fallen asleep. This latest “fatigue-related” accident can be added to a long list of similar incidents.
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2. Port State Slams Cook Islands
ClassNK’s annual report on Port State Control (PSC) has found that its vessels registered in the Cook Islands were proportionately the most often-detained by inspectors in 2013. Under ClassNK’s detention ratio, which takes into account the number of ClassNK ships registered under the flag, the Cook Islands were found to have a detention ratio of 28.6% in 2013, closely followed by St. Vincent and the Grenadines registry’s total of 27.8%.
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3. Piracy Still a Threat
Piracy’s gone away, right? You’d be forgiven for thinking that. The predominant narrative for the Indian Ocean is that Piracy has been suppressed to an extent that ship-owners are requesting fewer guards, even unarmed in some cases. But given the recent attacks in South East Asia and the prevailing amount of maritime crime and piracy off the Gulf of Guinea, Piracy hasn’t been eradicated at all; it’s simply evolved and will continue to change as it always does.
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4. Wrong Orbits Blamed on Rocket
An independent investigation committee is looking at why two European navigation satellites are in the wrong orbits following their launch from French Guiana last week. While the first part of the launch went well, officials said telemetry from the satellites showed that the satellites were not where they were supposed to be. The probe is ongoing, but officials believe it is related to a stage of the Soyuz rocket that hefted the satellites into space.
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5. Tanker Blast Kills Crewmen
An oil tanker exploded while docked at the northern port of Lach Bang in Vietnam, subsequently killing two people and severely injuring four others. The fire completely destroyed the tanker, which was carrying 5,000 litres of oil. Flames rapidly engulfed the whole ship. Rescue officials were able to put out the fire after an hour-long battle. The blast happened when crew were using a weld torch to repair the vessel.
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6. Rena Focus on Fatigue
Australia’s Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has concluded that it is likely that the master and second mate were at risk of at least mild fatigue impairment prior to the grounding of the container ship Rena in 2011. During the vessel’s voyage, a number of changes were made to the passage plan to reduce its voyage time between Napier and Tauranga in New Zealand. Analysis of sleep and work data indicates that the master had fragmented sleep.
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7. New Stern Design Brings Benefits
The Ulstein Group is introducing the X-Stern, a design feature that brings the X-Bow effect to the aft ship, along with additional ice operation capabilities, increasing operability through positive effects on station keeping, wave response, comfort and safety in harsh conditions. Ulstein introduced the X-Bow to the market in 2005 as a design feature that increases crew comfort while giving the opportunity to keep up speed in foul weather or use reduced fuel consumption.
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8. Ferry Bosses Suppress Repair Costs
Crash repair costs which ferry company CalMac fought to keep secret after a collision involving Gourock ferry MV Coruisk totalled nearly ÂŁ400,000, the media has revealed. The publicly owned shipping firm had consistently refused over a near four-month period to reveal the scale of damage caused to the vessel after a Freedom of Information request was made. The 1,599-ton ship smashed into a breakwater berth in thick fog, causing her hull to crumple.
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9. Master Punished for Malta Mistake
The Egyptian captain of a Maltese flagged ship, accused of entering Maltese territorial waters and the Grand Harbour without the proper documentation and prior notification of the authorities, has been granted bail against a €5,000 deposit – almost one month after his vessel was seized. The vessel in question, Maltese-flagged “Golden Dawn” has been detained since the 30 July 2014. The captain was charged with not following correct port procedure.
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10. US Navy Funds Whale Weigh Station
A US Navy-funded study to document blue and fin whale distribution, occurrence and movement patterns along the U.S. West Coast and throughout the Eastern Pacific is ongoing. Oregon State University researchers will attempt to locate and attach up to 24 long-term satellite tracking tags to blue and fin whales off Southern California. The researchers will deploy depending on reported sightings of blue and fin whales. Ok, so not actually weighing them…
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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S Jones
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