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Have an Iridium, VHF or SSB handheld radio aboard? What about a portable GPS? Create an Abandon ship electronics grab bag that is waterproof, floats and will survive a fire.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Buy a Pelican Case
• Stencil it with the ship’s Name
• Apply reflective SOLAS tape
• Laminate copies of the electronics’ manual
• Print and Laminate a list of emergency contact numbers

That’s pretty much it.

(This tip was suggested by Jean Pierre de Lutz. in his post “Sailing in Severe Weather Lessons Learned“.)

Video: [Continue Reading →]

While the majority of episodes are dedicated to recreational boaters, the weekly video podcast TheBoaters TV is enjoyable viewing and has the occasional story about big ships. Here’s an example highlighting our post titled The Dream Tanker.

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You can view their entire video podcast archives online HERE. While visiting be sure to visit the site’s google map version of Nautical Charts powered by our friends at EarthNC.

If your looking for good online television dedicated more to commerical mariners be sure to visit MaritimeTV.com. Our favorite videos are on the DamageControl.tv channel, check it out.

This 50 meter yacht promises to be vastly cleaner and more fuel-efficient than traditional marine powerplants, and Sabdes says the 50M will have a higher cruising speed than comparably sized vessels. With retractable battery-powered electric thrusters fore and aft, the big boat has the ability to maneuver silently in port or through more sensitive marine environments.

Other elements ease the superyacht’s eco-impact in subtler ways: [Continue Reading →]

Dockwise Yacht Transport has been in the boat delivery business for 21 years. Their semi-submersible vessels operate world wide.

Dockwise’s newest vessel, the China Built heavy lift ship Yacht Express is the world’s largest float-on float-off yacht carrier (Video). This amazing ship has opened a regular round-trip service between Florida and the Mediterranean. 18 yachts worth in total some £78 million are being carried aboard the 209m long vessel on its inaugural voyage. Here is information from the owners:

Yacht Express

As the leaders in yacht transport since the 1980s, Dockwise Yacht Transport is taking yacht delivery to an even higher level by introducing the world’s first specifically-built yacht carrier, Yacht Express. The carrier provides the fastest transatlantic service ever from Florida and the Mediterranean each month. This new yacht transport vessel features amenities designed for worldwide yacht transport, including: conference room, media room, an atrium with a swimming pool, fitness room, complimentary cabins for ride-aboard crew and other facilities to make the voyage as productive and pleasant as possible. This yacht transport vessel is the largest vessel of its kind in the world.

Design Features
This specially designed yacht carrier is semi-submersible in order to maintain the unique float-on/float-off loading method. The yacht delivery carrier will have a length of 209 meter (685.7 ft) and a beam of 32.2 meter (106 ft). The yachts can be safely accommodated between the spray covers in the dock bay, which measures a deck space of 165 meter (541 ft) in length and 31 meter (102 ft) in width. With a deck space of 5,115 square meters (55,060 ft) DYT is able to transport more yachts in one voyage.

Ballasting and deballasting is carried out with four main ballast pumps, each with a capacity of 1,200 cu.m/h at 30 m head. Other pump systems include two fi-fi/general service pumps, each with a capacity of 100 cu.m/h at 80 m head or 210 cu.m/h at 30 m head; an emergency fire pump of 72 cu.m/h at 70 m head; and a 200 cu.m/h ejector pump. Cargo handling is facilitated by a 2 x 10 t crane with an outreach of 15 m.

Propulsion Plant

Propulsion and maneuvering plant consists of two 8,700 kW Wärtsilä 12V38 B common rail diesel generator sets, each driving two Lips azimuth pulling thrusters featuring cp-propellers via two electric motors of 5,100 kW each. Maneuvering is enhanced by a single 1,640 kW bow thruster with cp-propeller.

Auxiliary power is derived from two Wärtsilä 6L20 common rail diesel generator sets of 1,020 kW. Emergency power is supplied by a Volvo Penta D34A MS generator of 610 kW, 440 V, 60 Hz.

The spacious bridge features an integrated bridge system consisting of a UniMACS 3000 with two radar systems with ARPA and two ECDIS, one conning and platform management system, incorporating an advanced DPT 3500 autopilot/joystick system.

Sophisticated

“More important is that this sophisticated yacht carrier is designed to have a service speed of 18 knots”, said Clemens van der Werf, President of DYT, “meaning that a trans-Atlantic voyage from the Mediterranean to Florida/Caribbean with this ultra modern yacht carrier will be reduced by nearly 50% from 15 to 8 days! Owners can enjoy the advantage of extra riders on board to accompany the yacht during the voyage and they can enjoy our state-of-the-art facilities on board. The addition of this new yacht carrier to our fleet implies an important step forward for DYT to improve the quality of services to clients that is based on safety, regularity and reliability.”

Launch completed

The launch of the Yacht Express was a major milestone in the development of the yacht transport industry. On January 15th, 2007 the Yacht Express was skidded from its construction berth ashore, where it was built since September 2005, onto four connected floating submersible barges. The skidding process was completed within 6 hours.

On January 19th, 2007 the barges were submersed and the Yacht Express floated off at high tide and moored alongside the construction berth for further outfitting and commissioning. Dockwise Yacht Transport took delivery of the vessel in October, 2007.

…And for anyone that’s curious: yes it is built to sink.

Photos of Dockwise in action can be found HERE. [Continue Reading →]

 

 Dockwise Yacht Express: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

During a January 4 storm, two 47-foot Motor Life Boats from Station Golden Gate responded to calls and assisted four boaters in distress, towing one of the vessels to shore after it broke away from its anchor. At the height of the storm, the crews battled high winds and rain to toss a heaving line to the boater. Attempts were successful and the boater was towed about one mile to a local pier. (Video by Petty Officer Erik J. Swanson)

Here’s episode 02 of Messing About In Ships, your new maritime podcast.

This week’s topics include;

• Listener Comments
  • Antarctic Cruise Ship Sinking
  • Sinking of the Texas Clipper
• Pasha Bulker Incident Report - Photos HERE
• 9 Days on raft after losing keel

Subscribe via iTunes or right click.. saves as -> direct link

 

 Messing About In Ships - A Maritime Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Earlier this week I received a request from our friend Ben Ellison at Panbo to poll our readers on the use of AIS. He was especially concerned with the upcoming release of AIS-B, vessel tracking system for boaters, and how the watch officers of large ships expected to process the increasingly large amounts of data on their radar screens. You can read that post HERE.

While writing the post I was curious about the other side of the equation namely, what do experienced boaters think about us? To answer my questions I contacted our friend Richard Rodriguez of BitterEnd blog, an experienced vessel assist Captain on one of nation’s busiest inland waterways; the Puget Sound. Here is his reply;

1) What should ships worry about when interacting with boats?

That most boats have no clue as to how to interact with ships. In the Licensing Courses I teach, I used to be surprised when folks indicated that they didn’t know ships do not guard channel 16. Ships should be afraid, very afraid, as most boats don’t have a clue, as to what to do or how to do it when they encounter a ship. Easily 1/3 of the boats I tow in the season, can’t give their Lat/Long, even though the have a GPS, let alone know about what to do related to ships. Boats usually run the other way; expect the unexpected.

2) Top 10 things I wish ships did to make boating safer?

1. Call a Securité, on channel 16, to announce a departure from norm.
2. Slowed down, when transiting congested waterways.
3. Occasionally use channel 16 when unsure of a boat’s action.
4. - 10. I’ll let readers fill in the blanks in the comment section.

3) Top 5 close calls I’ve had with ships.

1. Hiding out in the Sep Zone as I was waked by ships on either side of me.
2. Being in restricted visibility with out a radar, before I knew the rules and almost hitting a CG Cutter off the Columbia Bar.
3. Attempting to beat a 900′ USNS RoRo across the lanes. - I lost.
4. - 5. I’ll let readers fill in the blanks in the comment section.

4) Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range… how to tell if a boater is unable to get out of the way.

CBDR - now there’s a concept. Joe Blow thinks that if he bumps the throttle a few hundred RPM’s that he can beat you across the VTS lanes. He has no idea that you’re pumping 20+ kts, five to seven miles away when he starts across the (1.25 nm) lanes at 5.5 kts.

5) Lessons learned from my years boating the Puget Sound.

Conditions change - be prepared for the worst case scenario. Always have a plan B and a plan C.

Practice, practice, practice. Can you navigate with traditional tools? If you’re a sailor - can you make it to your slip under sail? When was the last time you did a man overboard drill?

By all means remember that S**T HAPPENS. If you think that something is about to happen, it is “Deemed to Exist.” Don’t put your head in the sand and boldly keep going.

Also be sure to read his related articles:

• AIS - A Mixed Blessing

• VTS - Working with large vessels

Question: What is The most dangerous hour in shipping?

Answer: 22:24 to 23:45

There are three watches aboard ship 00-04 (i.e. 0000 to 0400 and 1600 to 2200) is often stood by the Second Mate. 04-08 is often stood by the Chief Mate. 08-12 is stood by the Third Mate.

The C/M stands the 04-08 so he’s up and ready for the day workers to start work at 0800 and the Third Mate is given the 08-12 because the Captain is usually awake from 0600 to 2200 and is available to help the most junior watch officer.

But… from the time the Captain goes to bed till the Second Mate arrives for watch (at around 23:30) the Third Mate is the only deck officer that is awake. Not a problem if the Third has experiance but when green mates meet in restricted waters two ships passing in the night is anything but poetic.

We have already proclaimed our love of AIS, the technology that helps watchkeepers identify surrounding vessel traffic, but currently this technology only lets us track large ships. This is about to change. Panbo reports that the USCG has asked the FCC to expedite approval of AIS-B systems for use on boats.

What is AIS-B? The U.S. Coast Guard says;
Class B (AIS) is nearly identical to the Class A, except the Class B:

• Has a reporting rate less than a Class A (e.g. every 30 sec. when under 14 knots, as opposed to every 10 sec. for Class A)
• Does not transmit the vessel’s IMO number or call sign
• Does not transmit ETA or destination
• Does not transmit navigational status
• Is only required to receive, not transmit, text safety messages
• Is only required to receive, not transmit, application identifiers (binary messages)
• Does not transmit rate of turn information
• Does not transmit maximum present static draught

Got that?

You may have picked up on some Class B chatter over at Navagear or at Panbo questioning how effective these units will be in helping ships avoid small boats. Well Ben Ellison, electronics editor at Power & Motoryacht, Sail Magazine and Panbo.com has some questions for the ProMariner readers of gCaptain. He writes;

The bigger question is how much are they using AIS on their bridges?

Do they have good AIS target displays?

Are the displays getting too crowded as is, i.e. would there be a temptation to filter out Class B targets if they proliferate?

So with the goal of safer inland waterways for all we ask all professional mariners to answer the following poll questions then add your answers to Ben’s questions in our comments section.

We are thrilled to announce a new endeavor from the editors of gCaptain and leadership gurus at Sea Fever Consulting…

A Maritime podcast; Messing About In Ships.

Starting today, gCaptain’s own Captain John Konrad and our friend Peter Mello of Sea-Fever.org will be producing a weekly podcast about all things related to ships. Many of you may be familiar with Kenneth Graham’s 1908 classic children’s book, The Wind in the Willows in which Ratty declares to Mole:

“There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats“

Well, we may have grown up a bit but we still agree with Ratty; only now we mess about in slightly larger and more complicated vessels.

Each week we’ll explore stories that appear in gCaptain’s great Discoverer news section of their website. We also will select a blog or podcast for a weekly feature we call New Media Port of Call. We have plans to interview maritime professionals, authors, educators, regulators and others about issues that affect the maritime industry today and into the future. Finally, each episode will close with a selection music from the Podsafe Music Network for your enjoyment.

What we are most excited about is you taking an active role in shaping this project. We have set up a Messing About In Ships blog where the show notes and links from each episode will appear and we encourage you to comment there. Also consider recording a short audio comment, attach it as an MP3 file to an email and send it to podcast@messingaboutinships.com and we will find a way to integrate it into the program.

Subscribe via iTunes

You can also add Messing About In Ships to:

• Your Website
• Google Homepage
• Yahoo Homepage
• Facebook

Visit MessingAroundInShips.com for show notes and more details.

 

 Messing About In Ships Episode 01: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download