EMPA Harbour Towage and Pilotage
EMPA Harbour Towage and Pilotage
EMPA Harbour Towage and Pilotage
Our suggestions: ships crews, pilots and tug-masters must repeatedly be made aware of such possible forces and the inherent dangers ships operators, naval architects, shipyards, classification societies, marine surveyors as well as equipment providers must be made aware of these forces and include these considerations in their planning the Requirements are to be more specific on such towing aspects and here in particular in respect to container ships ships crews and pilots should be facilitated to have the Towing and Mooring Arrangement Plan at hand, summarizing on-board equipment and SWLs also for daily harbour towage operations
(1)
On the web:
http://www.iacs.org.uk/document/public/Publications/Unified_requirements/PDF/UR_A_pdf148.PDF
Our suggestions: Towing and Mooring Arrangement Plans are to be designed for good and safe seamanship Ships crews and pilots should be facilitated to have the Towing and Mooring Arrangement Plans at hand, summarizing on-board equipment and SWLs also for daily harbour towage operations. Limitations need to be communicated to the tug-masters. Specific needs for harbour-towage (not only emergency-towing) to be recognized and considered for ships designs
3. Push Points The Problem Push points on ships' hulls are located on transverse bulkheads or web frames to avoid damages to the shell plating. None of these Push Points is marked with any max SWLs. Are the acceptable pressures of these Push Points known? Will they stand the force of a 70 tbp tug pushing with full power on less than 1 m plate/hull area? As far as we understood, such calculations are only available for the impact on shore fenders. Often no information is available whether it is acceptable to let tugs push on the transom stern of the ship. Our suggestions: Push Points to be clearly marked with SWLs On-board information to be readily available whether tugs pushing at the transom stern is acceptable Already in the design phase, these criteria should be considered
4. High minimum speeds The Problem The latest generation of large container vessels have an enormous main engine output. Engine manufacturers and ship operators as well as many other actors in the maritime chain have focussed on economic fuel consumption, taking advantage of the ever increasing economies of scale and on the ever increasing sizes of ships. However, the downside is that Dead Slow of these large vessels is usually in excess of 6-11 knots through the water. Making fast a tug for a harbour towage at this speed - especially on the ships bow - is simply dangerous. The maximum speed of a tug is approximately 11 to 12 knots. Once safely connected, high passage speeds are reducing tugs abilities. Beyond 8 kn, tugs capabilities are very limited and on top it is getting very dangerous for tug and crew. Our suggestion: Engines to be designed for 3-6 knots at Dead Slow for safe harbour work of tugs and tugs crews.
OCIMF Mooring Equipment Guidelines The 3rd edition of the "Oil Company International Marine Forum" (OCIMF) guideline, published in 2008, contains very useful remarks in respect of our above concerns such as: Limitations on the use of tugs Requirements for Emergency Towing and Escorting Requirements on fairleads bending diameters, abrasion of tow lines and many more
Unfortunately these guidelines are explicitly issued for tankers only and not for container ships, car carriers or any other ships types.
Summary: The European Tugowners Association (ETA) jointly with the European Maritime Pilots Association (EMPA) wish to raise awareness of the actors in the shipping industry in respect to the aforementioned technical and regulatory concerns in order to improve safety and Best Practice for the towage industry when assisting ships in ports. In our view the major parties in this maritime environment are o o o o o o o Shipowners and Operators Shipyards Classification Societies Flagstate Administrations Naval Architects Engine Manufacturers Maritime Surveyors