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.: 12-Feb-2016 :. Search News
Displaying 1 to 2 of Records.
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 1  

Anthem of the Seas - Is She Seaworthy?
On Wednesday night, the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Anthem of the Seas, made it safely back to its berth in Cape Liberty in New York harbor, a bit battered, but generally in good condition. Her roughly 4,500 passengers disembarked after a harrowing cruise to nowhere. The obvious first lesson of this unfortunate voyage is that a winter cruise from New York harbor around Cape Hatteras may not be such a good idea. The weather can get very rough. In this case, extremely rough. The captain reported wind speeds of 150-160 knots (172-184 mph), wind speeds comparable to a Category 5 hurricane. There were also reports of 30-foot waves. The Anthem of the Seas was in serious danger.

Remarkably, the ship did just fine. The propellers kept turning. The lights stayed on. At the height of the storm, passengers in their staterooms were able to watch the Super Bowl without interruption, which was good news at least to Broncos fans. The ship incurred damage but it was reported to be superficial. There were no serious injuries to passengers or crew. As uncomfortable and scary as it must have been for all aboard, the ship; all eighteen decks of balconies, glass, and railings; weathered the storm. No doubt the captain, officers, and crew deserve much credit, but so too does the ship.

This matters because there have been many who have stated, matter of factly, that modern cruise ships are unseaworthy, unstable and simply unsafe. In the NOVA program, "Why Ships Sink," Allan Graveson, Senior National Secretary, Nautilus UK, a trade union, says, "These ships now are being built in such a way that they are inherently unstable. It is a design issue." The basis of Mr. Graveson’s assertion is unclear but it hasn't stopped him from repeating it.

Jim Walker, a maritime lawyer who specializes in the cruise industry and writes the popular blog, Cruise Law News, also expressed his opinion. In a blog post, "Are Cruise Ships Dangerously Top Heavy?" he writes:

"I do not pretend to be a naval architect. I studied English and History at Duke. It remains a mystery to me how jumbo jets can take off or huge ships can even float. But you don’t need to be an expert to have an opinion on this issue. Mr. Sheperd reminds us of the old saying in boat building, "if it looks right, it is right."

Well, these cruise ships don’t look right to me. They look like condominiums ripped out of Collins Avenue on Miami Beach and placed on a barge. They look eager to tip over."

The "Mr. Shepard" that Walker refers to is another blogger who also opined: "Why Mega Cruise Ships Are Unsafe."

The truth is that modern cruise ships do look ungainly and top-heavy. They look like layer cakes with way too many layers. Containerships stacked high with containers or the boxiest Pure Car Carriers look positively dainty next to the modern cruise ship behemoths.

Of course, opinions are not facts and appearances can be deceiving.

I am a naval architect and I know that one cannot calculate a ship's stability simply by the ship's appearance. Stability depends on many factors - the ship's vertical center of gravity, the moment of inertia of the waterplane, the area under the righting arm curve, windage, free surface and so on. It is not enough to say, "Gee, that ship looks top heavy." Likewise, to suggest that the ships are inherently unstable by design is just silly. Passenger ship design and stability are carefully controlled and regulated.

All this is easy to say, sitting in a heated office ashore. But are those of us who claim that there is nothing to worry about, that cruise ships are stable and meet all the regulations, are we also just expressing our opinions? Are our opinions supported by physics and engineering? The Prussian Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke the Elder said that "no plan survives the first contact with the enemy." Likewise, ship designs that work on paper don’t always survive a storm at sea.

The recent encounter between a modern cruise ship and major storm was a test, not a calculation or a simulation but a full-scale blowout trial in highly dangerous conditions. It was a test that probably could and should have been avoided, but proved interesting and revelatory, all the same.

The bottom line? The Anthem of the Seas survived. No one died or was seriously injured. The ship made it into port under its own power. This is not to say that all cruise ships under similar circumstances would necessarily have done as well, or that other things could not have gone seriously awry. But, in this case, the critics were proved wrong. A brand new cruise ship, as high sided and ungainly as any of her sisters, survived the worst winds and seas.

So, when the doubters suggest that cruise ships are unstable or unsafe, the right answer may be "they are a lot more seaworthy than they look."

Posted On:12-Feb-2016



Credits: gcaptain.com

Highly satisfying result from Maersk Tankers
Maersk Tankers emerges from 2015 with its best result in many years. Increasing rates and results from the Taking Lead Strategy mean that Maersk Tankers has achieved an underlying result of USD 156 m, USD 150 m of which came from the product tanker segment, which Maersk Tankers chose to focus on a couple of years ago. Maersk Tankers leaves 2015 with a highly satisfying result of USD 160 m (USD 132 m in 2014) and a return on invested capital of 9.9% (6.8% in 2014).

The underlying result for 2015 is USD 156 m, against an underlying result of USD 138 m in 2014, of which USD 28 m were lost on the product tanker segment. The profit in 2014 could be attributed to the larger VLCC vessels, which Maersk Tankers sold off during 2014, including the reversal of provision for onerous contracts of USD 87 m. Maersk Tankers has found it difficult to deliver satisfactory results for several years due to very low rates in the market.

This meant that, a couple of years ago, Maersk Tankers chose to focus on the product tanker market, through which Maersk Tankers expects to be able to achieve the best earnings in the long-term, for example due to the refineries moving closer to the oil wells. The focus on the product tanker market, as well as on improved earnings, is the basis of the Taking Lead Strategy, which was launched in the summer of 2014.

The rates in the product tanker segment began to increase as early as late 2014, and even earlier in the VLCC market. The increasing rates, along with the results of the Taking Lead Strategy, mean that Maersk Tankers has achieved its best result in many years, USD 21 m of which can be attributed to improvements achieved through the initiatives from the Taking Lead Strategy, which comprises three main elements:

Cost Leadership, where the focus is on optimising costs connected to fleet operations/Daily Running Cost
Active Position Taking, where Maersk Tankers will strengthen the planning of vessel positioning through increased data use, which will mean that Maersk tankers will have a greater chance of getting the most profitable loads 3rd party Services, which is an expansion of Maersk Tankers’ pools with more external vessels.

"It is highly satisfying that just one full year after launching our strategy "Taking Lead", we are able to achieve such a good result. The result is of course helped by a significant increase in rates, but even after just one year, we can already see some good results from our strategy," says Morten H. Engelstoft, CEO for Maersk Tankers. The rates in the product tanker segment have increased to index 164. Our expectations for the rates are positive. This means that we do not expect the rates to get as low as that seen in the last 5-6 years. We will continue to see a lot of volatility in the market. The development in rates is generally positively affected by the low oil prices.

"With our Taking Lead Strategy, we are focusing in particular on reducing our daily operational costs, but also on predicting the development in the rates, where there is great variation between the geographical markets. In addition, we have a goal to expand our pool cooperation, primarily with shipowners who don’t themselves have an organization to handle the operation of their vessels. By expanding our fleet over the next couple of years, we and our pool partners can benefit from our strong operational capabilities - including some of the synergies that can be gained from being part of the world’s largest tanker company," says Morten H. Engelstoft.

"We are therefore on a voyage where we will be in a much better position to be able to handle the very volatile market in which we find ourselves. Of course there is always a risk that the rates will at some point drop to a very low level again, but we can already see that, with our strategy, we are in a much stronger position than we were previously," concludes Morten H. Engelstoft. Maersk Tankers owns and operates a large fleet of product tankers - all built and operated in accordance with the highest standards for quality and reliability.
We acquired our first dedicated tanker in 1928, and we've been expanding and improving our fleet to meet changing customer needs ever since. Today, the Maersk Tankers fleet is one of the largest product tanker fleets in the world.
Source: Maersk Tankers

Posted On:12-Feb-2016



Credits: www.hellenicshippingnews.com
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