Fireboat to be Equipped with Six Fire Monitors and 26 Manifold Valves for High-Volume Water and/or Foam Firefighting. Source: Jensen Maritime

Seattle-based Jensen Maritime Consultants, Inc. announced today they have been chosen to design a custom “super pumper” fireboat for the City of San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) that will enhance the departments marine fire fighting and response capabilities on water.

This high-volume water and foam pumping NFPA Type II fireboat will feature six fire monitors and 26 manifold valves, allowing for more than 16,000 gallons of water and/or fire-fighting foam per minute to be thrown from a distance of 300 feet to extinguish flames quickly and safely.  Typically NFPA Type II fireboats are equipped with four fire monitors and eight manifold valves, and can pump 10,000 gallons per minute.

The availability of so many monitors and valves means that the fireboat will be equipped to provide water directly from the bay or ocean should shoreside fire mains be damaged by an earthquake.

Meeting NFPA standards, Jensen will design the boat primarily for high-volume water pumping, firefighting, rescue, emergency medical service and patrol in the waters of San Francisco and San Pablo Bay’s and the Pacific Ocean within five miles of shore and the adjoining inland waterways.

The boat will be designed with a semi-displacement hull type to maximize capacity and reduce operating costs. Once built, the fireboat will measure 90 feet in length and 24 feet in breadth. It is estimated that the vessel be capable of reaching speeds of 12 knots. The vessel will not be classed.

On board, the vessel will be equipped with CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive) detection capabilities and will have self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBAs) for the safety of firefighting personnel and crewmembers.

“This highly capable fireboat will be a real asset to San Francisco Fire Department as it responds to a variety of marine events, including natural disasters such as earthquakes,” said Jensen’s Johan Sperling, vice president. “We will work closely with fire department personnel to design a versatile and highly efficient boat that can extinguish flames quickly and safely. We are pleased to offer our expertise and provide another industry-leading design.”

Additional design features include a steel hull, a main deck and pilot house that will accommodate three crewmembers, four firefighters, four passengers and up to 60 rescue victims; forward looking infrared (FLIR) to aid with firefighting and search and rescue; and a fuel capacity and efficiency that makes it possible for the boat to remain on scene for up to 36 hours without refueling.

The design is expected to be finalized during the second quarter of 2012, and the construction and delivery will be complete during thefall of 2013.

Jensen has vast experience designing fireboats of all types for major cities on the West Coast. Jensen’s recent vessel designs include the fastest fireboat on the Columbia River for the City of Portland’s Fire & Rescue team; a 108-foot fireboat and 50-foot fast-attack fireboat for the Seattle Fire Department; three 40-foot fireboats for the Los Angeles Fire Department; a 40-foot fireboat for the Los Angeles County Fire Department; and a 37-foot, 40-knot patrol boat and 44-foot patrol boat for the Seattle Police Department. Jensen has a complete line of fireboat designs ranging from 38 to 108 feet.

The Seattle, WA-based Jensen Maritime Consultants, Inc., is a naval architecture and marine engineering firm owned by Crowley Maritime Corporation.

USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) anchors in San Francisco Bay during Fleet Week 2011.  Outstanding shot by Mr. Michael McGreedy.

In May, the USS Carl Vinson famously dumped buried Osama Bin Laden’s body in the North Arabian Sea.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the governments of California, San Francisco, and Richmond, Calif., signed a consent decree with Regal Stone Ltd. and Fleet Management Ltd. that requires the vessel owners to pay $44.4 million to cover environmental damage and penalties associated with the oil spill.

The ship, called the M/V Cosco Busan, which is owned by Regal Stone and managed by Fleet Management, crashed into the Bay Bridge Nov. 7, 2007, on its way from the Port of Oakland to the Pacific Ocean. The ship’s fuel tank punctured and spilled the fuel oil into the bay, according to government reports.

The oil spill hurt birds, fish and their habitats and also impacted recreational and other uses of the bay, the government said.

Of the $44.4 million payment, about $23.5 million plus interest will go to the Interior Department; $7.3 million will go to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation; $1.1 million will go to the city and county of San Francisco and $669,000 to the city of Richmond.

-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswire

Along with a full day of cruising the racetrack, your trip includes a stop under the new, and old, Bay Bridge, a guided tour of the historic vessel with a special stop in the steam engine room (where they filmed scenes from the blockbuster movie “Titanic” ), live music, breakfast, lunch and drinks on deck.

The SS Jeremiah O’Brien is a Liberty Ship launched during WWII. The vessel is one of two Liberty Ships still in operation, and a survivor of the armada that stormed Normandy on D-Day.

Interested in getting Zozi’s deal?  Click HERE to purchase.  You better hurry, the offer expires in just 2 days!

Being in San Francisco, I grabbed my camera and went to Lands End to see what was going on. I arrived 09:00 PST, approximately 50 minutes after the initial waves hit.  The police had Point Lobos Ave. blocked off from the intersection of 48th going south.  From the parking lot of the Lands End Trail looking west it was hard to see what exactly was going on, but you could tell the water was extremely turbulent.

Police however weren’t restricting anyone from walking down the trails to the Sutro Baths.  In the photo below, you can see a pedestrian at the top left corner of the bath.  Having seen video from this morning’s tsunami in Japan, I wasn’t about to venture down there.

My vantage point for these next shots was directly under the Cliff House, looking south down Great Highway.  I arrived just as what appeared to be the second strongest set of waves hitting the beach at approximately 09:30.  You can see the line in the sand from what was presumably the first set at 08:08 PST, according to reports.

The water level remained at this height for a good couple of minutes.  Having arrived at the peak of a set it was difficult to tell what was happening, although you knew something different was going on.  It wasn’t until the water began to recede that you could really grasp the situation.

Low tide was at 9:51 am, right around when these shots were taken.

At it’s lowest point, the tide was approximately 100 yards from what it was its peak, and the water a lot less choppy.

There were not many people on the beach and relatively few on the cruising path.  This person thought it was a good idea to bring their kid down and there was no one stopping them.

Every 10 or 15 minutes, the water would again rise about midway before heading back out.

When the water did rise, the waves were not as to be expected and hard to judge.  They came in small but frequent doses of white water about 2-3 feet max in height.  They weren’t the clean barrel waves you’d associate with surfing.  There were definitely no surfers out there.

Below, is the peak of the third strongest set at approximately 10:15 PST.  You can see it was about 30 yards or so from where the first strongest set reached, and just a few yards away from the second, shown in the above pictures.

It truly is remarkable that we can see the physical effects of a natural disaster that happened several thousand miles away, and many hours prior, in Japan.  While it was exciting to see (safely) the strength of nature up close and personal, lucky for us here on the west coast it was not too dramatic of a scene.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this tragedy.

Word and photos by Mike Schuler © gCaptain.com

San Francisco’s 2010 Fleet Week kicked off today with the Blue Angels performing “Circle & Arrival” maneuvers over the entire Bay.  Not many people were out, so it was a good chance to catch what seemed like a private show on a beautiful San Francisco day.  We caught this shot above near Crissy Field.  They must have passed 50 times in the course of two hours, and I can still hear them circling above as we speak.  What we were really waiting for was the USS Makin Island to transit underneath the Golden Gate, but couldn’t figure out if we were too late, or too early.  There were a a few USCG cutters out, along with a nice fire boat and various fast rescue boats.

For those of you that are going to be in or around the Bay Area, their are events going on all weekend long.  Try to make it out tomorrow if you can.  You’ll get the full show without the crowds.

For a full calendar of events, CLICK HERE and be sure to continue after the jump for a few more shots from today.

This weeks photo was taken by gCaptain Staff from a roof top in downtown San Francisco, California. It is of a Container Ship operated by Yang Ming passing through San Francisco Bay.

Some more events unfolded yesterday in the case of the Cosco Busan allision with the San Francisco Bay Bridge.  Fleet Management Ltd., the vessels operating company, plead guilty to two misdemeanor criminal charges and admitted it was partly to blame for the spill of 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay.

If accepted, the guilty plea would also expose Fleet Management Ltd. to damages for the costs of the November 2007 spill and cleanup.

Fleet Management has also been charged with six felonies for allegedly concealing its navigation plans for the Cosco Busan and fabricating documents after the spill to interfere with the investigation. Its trial is scheduled for Sept. 14.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Image via sfexaminer.com

A massive 328-foot crane arrived in San Francisco Bay last week to start working on the Bay Bridge’s eastern span project.  The crane, called the “Left Coast Lifter“, was built specifically for the Bay Bridge project in Shanghai, China and is the biggest floating crane ever to hit the west coast.  It arrived aboard the MV ZHEN HUA 22 and passed under the Golden Gate bridge en route to Pier 7 in Oakland, where it will be tested before being moved into position at the Bay Bridge.

The crane’s boom is 328 feet long, weighs approximately 992 tons and is capable of lifting over 1,800 tons of materials.  At a height of about 30 stories, the West Coast Lifter will tower 150 feet over the existing bridges roadway.

Bye Bye Buoy

By John Denham

The recent sinking of the “SF” Sea Buoy by possibly a large foreign-flag container ship causes more concern about ship management. In recent published articles we  expressed concern about the size of ships and engines, simulator training and both management policy and ship management. All heralding the virtues  of “the ordinary practice of seamen” i.e., Bridge Resource Management.

The predictions for casualties in 2009 are not encouraging as they indicate more errors caused by humans. January 2009 started with the question: How does a modern container ship operated by a leading maritime shipping company with the latest navigation equipment allide with  a sea buoy located in a separation  zone in a precautionary area? Obviously it takes a lack of team work and coordination. The secret to “making a buoy” successfully is to establish a steady bearing and decreasing range.( Rule 7 (d) (I) sound familiar?)

An examination of a possible scenario might help.  The COSCO BUSAN is used as an excellent example of a typical modern containership in a probable loaded condition, however reportedly the suspect vessel was light loaded and was  52 feet more in LOA.

Photo courtesy COSCO-HANJIN

An observer should note, in the example, the navigation bridge is well aft, the stem is almost 600 feet forward, and as configured, there is approximately 15 rows of boxes, some  5 high in between the bridge and the forward mast. The line of sight from the Navigation Bridge extends the line of sight beyond the bow  by almost three ship lengths i.e., or about 2700 feet or 900 yards. The top of the Pilot House  radar antennae will probably detect a radar return from a lesser distance.

The suspect vessel’s line of sight was significantly better. Without  a fore-deck full of containers and only a slight drag one might see at least one ship length beyond the bow, however the radar reception was probably beyond the visual line of sight.  The “sea buoy” is three miles from the main ship channel entrance buoys #1 and #2; the pilot cruising area is half-way between. It was dark. It is assumed there was no attempt to allide with the navigation buoy and therefore the person(s) directing the navigation were not aware of its location, indicating either a lack of a proper lookout and a failure to maintain a proper navigation plot and an ineffective management of bridge resources( BRM).

The following scenario is possible:
On departing the bar channel between  Buoy#1 and #2 the pilot slowed in order to disembark on the port side on a south westerly heading; putting wind and sea to starboard. The advance and transfer of the maneuver would place the ship about 1.5 miles south west of the channel entrance and about the same distance from the sea buoy that is almost to the west. Bound for Asia on a great circle track and advised  to pass the sea buoy to starboard, the ship apparently headed  for the North Outbound Traffic Lane. Speed was increased to “Full Ahead” and a course direct to the Northern Outbound Lane ordered. Rudder was applied, probably without thought for the significantly large  course change at less than normal sea speed  and the advance and transfer that would head the vessel directly toward the sea buoy. Without  an alert bridge team and lookout the ship allided with the sea buoy, probably without notice. The first awareness was probably from the Engine room.

USCG released picture of the recovered, damaged sea buoy show a vertical puncture in the lower portion of the 32 foot buoy indicating a probable puncture by a propeller blade caused by a light loaded ship contacting and dragging the sea buoy it until was submerged.
The probable errors made are:

1. The ship’s exact position was not known after   the pilot departed.
2. The advance and transfer of the ship was not considered when ordering a very large course change in a light loaded condition at reduced  speed.
3. The position of any hazards ( sea buoy) was not determined.
4. A proper  lookout was not posted and the bridge watch was not situationally aware.

Each item alone is a minor infraction of proper seamanship; all four coupled together create a major failure in ship management.
The Port Agent for the pilots, Pete McIsaac confirms the pilot disembarked on a south by west heading and advised the Master to pass the Sea Buoy to starboard. The pilot boat’s electronic data and the visual observations by the operator reported the buoys active location  before the ship passed and that  it was no longer visible after  the outbound ship passed.

A  typical mistake is to consider a departure with less command attention than an arrival. The same hazards exist except in reverse order. The distraction and confusions occurring in the change of operational status ( in port maneuvering, at sea operations, limited visibility, significantly increased surface contacts etc., demand increase attention by “the person direction the movement of the vessel.”  A”sack”in football mostly occur when the quarterback does not adequately evaluate the defense. Again, the result of a gigantic vessel with an improperly functioning crew, lacking situational awareness and disregarding the ordinary practice of seamen. JGD

UPDATE:

The Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun – January 22, 2009

Report of December 30, 2008. Commissioner Moloney explained that a SF buoy was reportedly struck by an outbound vessel after a pilot disembarked. Commissioner Osen suggested that this issue be discussed at a later date after receipt of the Coast Guard’s report. Mr. Ross Wheatley, representing the United States Coast Guard, was present in the audience and informed the Board that the Coast Guard had identified the vessel to be the OOCL LONG BEACH. He further informed the Board that this incident is currently under investigation. This item will be kept on the agenda until the Coast Guard’s report is available and has been reviewed. (Document Link)