Auriga Leader - Toyota’s Solar Powered Cargo Ship

Completed in late 2008, the M/V Auriga Leader is the world’s first cargo ship to be partially propelled by solar power.   The 656-foot, 60,000-ton car carrier will initially transport vehicles being sent for sale overseas by Japan’s top automaker, Toyota Motor Corp, and harness the energy of the sun in order to reduce fuel costs and cut carbon emissions.

Currenlty docked at the Port of Long Beach, officials from the port, Toyota and NYK Line are allowing visitors to come aboard and view the 328 solar panels on the M/V Auriga Leader as part of a demonstration project to help raise awareness about reducing diesel emissions from large ships.

The vessel, developed by Nippon Yusen K.K. and Nippon Oil Corp., is capable of generating 10% of the energy used while the ship is docked with its 328 solar panels on the top deck.  Nippon Yusen has set a goal of halving its fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 2010.

The panels themselves are not attached to the ship directly, but are rather installed on the ship’s car-carrier, which is capable of carrying 6,400 automobiles, and then connected to the onboard 440 volt electrical network.

The companies hope having the panels on the carrier will protect them from the stresses of the ship’s environment, including salt-water damage, wind pressure, and vibrations.

Casualty Outlook

It’s been a bad week for lifeboats, once termed ‘the Pinto of the seas’. Over at Maritime Accident Casebook three incidents during drills and training have come to light, two on offshore platforms, one at an onshore training facility. All are currently under investigation and therefore sort of subjudice but in one case the lowering of a davit-launched lifeboat was halted due to a problem with the falls. Confused radio communications between those inside the boat and the person lowering the lifeboat apparently made those inside believe they were on the water and that the hydrostatic release had malfunctioned, so they over-rode the hydrostatic release and the boat fell a considerable distance into the water, causing a number of injuries.

Investigators will probably concentrate on three elements: the fouling of the cable, the radio communications problem, and the over-riding of the hydrostatic release. Inadequate training and drills is likely to surface as a root cause.

Cosco Busan, every San Franciscan’s favourite hate-object, is very much in the news. Setting aside the issue of the pilot’s medication, there are lots of lessons worth learning or re-learning. The latest Maritime Accident Casebook podcast, The Case of the Foggy Pilot, looks at bridge team management, how to get information out of a cranky pilot and how to ask and answer questions. After all, if you don’t ask a question right, you’re not asking the right question.

It’s when we think we’re safe that bad things often happen. A master and crewmember drowned when a boat ferrying them ashore capsized in Vietnam around 700 metres from their ship. Did anyone mention lifejackets?

Typhoon season is setting in around the western Pacific so we expect the usual heavy-weather casualties, as the discovery of more than 400 bodies in the Princess of the Seas in the Philippines reminds us. Two vessels were lost recently in the Arabian sea, fortunately without loss of life.

Time to look at anchoring, when to stay put and when to go, and keep an eye on speed, reminders of Pacific Commerce, Pasha Bulker and MSC Napoli respectively.

Take an overloaded ship with negligible freeboard, heavy weather and a steering failure and you end up with the Cap Blanc, which capsized off Canada’s Burin Peninsula last year. A photograph of the vessel taken the previous February tells the story, and the overloading was habitual, but also raises the question: Where was Port State Control?

Also there has been the explosion aboard the tanker Nhat Thuan,with three seafarers missing, the sinking of a trawler off of Thailand following a collision with an unnamed cargo vessel with one dead and five missing, a thankfully lossless collision between Marti Princess and Renate Schulte off the Turkish island of Bozcaada and the fire aboard Royal Princess of Princess Cruise Lines.

It’s been a bad time for piers, with the 653-foot Otello thumping a pier at the Port of Hueneme, the Staten Island Ferry doing ditto with 15 hurt, and bad news for lovers of paddle-steamers as the last of the ocean-going variety hit a landing pier on the Clyde.

Finally, a different sort of casualty from long ago. Today, July 1, sees the inauguration of a plaque to the Australian victims of the Japanese hellship Montevideo Maru at the only memorial to hellship victims, located at Subic Bay Freeport. Many hellship victims were merchant mariners, including in this case 31 Norwegian seafarers. Remember them.

Incredible Yacht Design - Oculus and Infinitas

I stumbled upon this while searching on, well, Stumble Upon, the tool that discovers web sites based on your set interests. In my search it referred me to Schöpfer Yachts, a new US based company that is “dedicated to the pursuit of advanced yacht aesthetics and technology.”

Now we have seen some interesting yachts in our day, including the 170 meter yacht that was just launched in Germany for the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, but this one (in concept) surely is in a class of its own in terms of forward thinking design and extraordinary style.

It is called the Oculus and it is a 250-foot vessel that was designed by E. Kevin Schöpfer, founder and owner of his namesake company.  The design is the first “design launch” of Schöpfer Yachts LLC.  Here are just a few of artist renditions for this bold new design.  More images, including details about the vessel, can  be found at SchöpferYachts.com

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Incident Video - Ship Collision in Aegean Sea

According to Reuters:

Jun 29 - Turkey’s Coast Guard rescue the 11 crew members of a Malta-flagged ship after their vessel collided with a container ship in the Aegean Sea.

No one was killed and both ships remained afloat after the accident, which occurred late on Saturday (June 27) in a shipping channel about 10 miles off the Turkish island of Bozcaada, the Anatolian news agency said.

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Bizarre Marketing - LG’s Unusual Launch of New Eco-Friendly Fridge

LG, the global manufacturer of electronic products and home appliances, has converted a 70-meter long push barge into a large, floating advertisement for the launch of their new eco-friendly refrigerator.  The football field sized vessel/refrigerator sailed up the Seine from Le Havre to Paris between June 22 and June 25.

The new refrigerator uses LG’s “Linear Compressor” technology requiring 20 percent less energy than conventional refrigerators.  While I have no idea exaclty what the new model is that LG is promoting with this unique marketing gimmick, here is a link to the LG’s refrigerator page just for their efforts and creativity. LINK

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Grand Ocean No. 1 - Incident Photo Of The Week

This week’s incident photo comes from a friend who just rounded the Cape Of Good Hope. The photos show the barge Grand Ocean No. 1 on the beach at Jacob’s Bay, South Africa.

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Maritime Monday 168

The following is posted by Fred Fry:

Welcome to this 168th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 118 here. (Published 7 July 2008)

You can find last week’s edition here.

You can find links to all the previous editions at the bottom of this post. You are encouraged to participate using the comment link/form at the bottom of the post. If you have photos or stories to tell, do email me at fred@gcaptain.com.

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This Week’s Photos:

This week’s photos are actually a documentary series. STV has the video series “The Merchant Navy“. See a review by THE MONITOR here. The screen shot is from the first episode. It was good. I can’t wait to see how it all ends.

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This Week’s Items:

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Changing Course and The Secret Of gCaptain.

After the successful launch of gCaptain’s new Maritime Jobs Board we are ready for the next big idea. The jobs section was built to help solve a problem, clear away the clutter of existing job platforms and equip gCaptain community members (the best mariners in the world!) with a tool to find jobs that excite and inspire. This article is written to announce the next idea… a product that will change the way you operate and manage ships. The product will be available for purchase at  third party retailers for a modest price and, a warning, Version 1.0 will be dead simple. Many of you will ask why a maritime publication would build a product and worry about our level of commitment in bringing you the best maritime news and ideas you enjoy every day on this blog. Once we announce the product you will likely have more questions like “What does this have to do with maritime publishing?”. While I can not talk about specifics I do want to help you understand what we do here at gCaptain and give you a broad outline on the future of this site.

The Secret

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gCaptain Announces New Site Search Technology

A feature we recently implemented is gCaptain site search built on the google search engine. We had this before but only on the homepage, lat week we added new functionality and added the engine to a new header bar found at the top of “all” (well almost all) gCaptain pages. The bar is located in the upper right hand corner of the site:

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Cittia De Salerno Rescue - Incident Photo Of The Week

Cittia De Salerno Sailboat Rescue At Sea

This week’s incident photo of the week is the rescue of the sailboat Cittia De Salerno’s captain, Gianfranco Tortolani, on the USA to UK segment of the the Original Single Handed Trans-Atlantic Race. AMVER tells us:

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