NTSB launches go team to investigate El Faro loss

Yesterday the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the vessel, which was en route from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Juan, Puerto Rico, was lost in last week’s storm. The Coast Guard will participate in the NTSB’s investigation.

The team will be led by the NTSB’s Tom Roth-Roffy as investigator-in-charge. NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr is accompanying the team and will serve as the principal spokesperson during the on-scene phase of the investigation.

Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D. FL.) said that, as a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, she will be asking for “a complete investigation into this tragic incident.”

The Coast Guard said yesterday that search and rescue crews continued searching for possible survivors from the cargo ship El Faro Monday night, covering a total search area of more than 160,574 square nautical miles.While searching in the vicinity of the ship’s last known position 35 nautical miles northeast of Crooked Islands, Bahamas, the Coast Guard located a deceased person in a survival suit in the water.

A heavily damaged life boat with markings consistent with those on board the El Faro was also located Sunday. Additional items located by Coast Guard aircrews within a 225 square nautical mile search area include a partially submerged life raft, life jackets, life rings, cargo containers and an oil sheen Sunday.Coast Guard assets involved in Monday’s search include:

Sea and weather conditions during Monday’s search include one-foot seas and 15 knots winds with unrestricted visibility.All three Coast Guard cutters remained on scene to search through the night.

NNS switches its steam plant from HFO to gas

 The plant generates low-pressure steam to heat many of the shipyard’s facilities, to provide process heat and to support hotel services—including hot water, food preparation and galley services—to the ships undergoing construction and overhaul.

“We started researching and evaluating alternative options about four years ago with the goal of implementation by 2016,” said Bill Cash-Robertson, a Newport News Shipbuilding environmental engineer. “Not only does the conversion to natural gas make good business sense, it’s more efficient, it’s cleaner, and it’s safer to operate.”

The old system, which included three 70-year-old boilers, burned about 6 million gallons of heavy fuel oil last year, costing the shipyard about $15 million.

Plant Engineering Supervisor Ken Allmon, a member of the shipyard’s energy management team, said the new system will reduce greenhouse gases by 30 percent and save the shipyard several million dollars per year in lower utility costs.”The team is proud of our work to overcome technical challenges and implement a solution that is a win for everybody,” he said.

Will Koeck, the project’s construction engineer, said one challenge was to safely remove and install large boilers in a plant that had to continue operating during the conversion. “We met the challenge with careful coordination and planning, and we had the first new boiler in place making steam in December 2014,” he said.

Bio-UV supplies skid mounted BWTS for French Navy vessels

OCTOBER 5, 2015 — French ballast water treatment system (BWTS) manufacturer Bio-UV has just supplied the Piriou Groups Concarneau shipyard with the first skid-mounted versions of its Bio-Sea 100 BWTS. They will

Incat Tasmania wins super ferry order from Denmark

 

The Hobart shipyard will commence work on construction of the wave piercing catamaran immediately, with delivery scheduled for the first quarter of 2017.

The newbuild super ferry, Incat hull number 088, will be named KatExpress 3, the fast ferry will be an upgraded and more customer-friendly version of near sister-ship vessels KatExpress 1 (Incat hull 066) and KatExpress 2 (Incat 067). The new fast ferry can take up to 1,000 tonnes of cargo, equivalent to up to 1,000 passengers and 417 cars. LikeKatExpress 1 and KatExpress 2, the new fast ferry will carry trucks, campervans, motorcycles and bicycles.

KatExpress 3 is expected to commence operation on the Mols Linien route between Aarhus and Odden and the route between Ebeltoft and Odden in late May 2017.

KatExpress 3 is likely to replace the company’s smallest ferry Max Mols, an Incat 91 m vessel (Incat hull 048) built in 1999.

Incat Chairman, Robert Clifford, in Copenhagen Denmark at the Interferry Conference said “A large ship order to a repeat customer is proof positive of the quality and reliability of the vessels our team build in Tasmania. This is the third Incat ship that Mols Linien have added to their fleet in a period of just four years”.

Incat Tasmania Managing Director Simon Carter said “We have been working on the project for some time, and although the design team still have some finer details to complete, construction will commence immediately”.

“The 250 production staff are currently building four passenger vessels for Manly Fast Ferries, with another six boat order for Sydney Ferries to commence in 2016. This new large ship order will secure work for an expanded workforce for at least a further two years”.

In a statement to the Danish Stock Exchange Mols-Linien announced that since the inauguration of the first super ferry it has increased the number of passenger cars it carries by 58 percent in the period from 2011 to 2014.

Update: Coast Guard finds life ring from El Faro

The El Faro, a 790-foot roll on, roll off, cargo ship, departed Jacksonville, Florida, Sept. 29, en route to San Juan.

At about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, watchstanders at the Coast Guard Atlantic Area command center in Portsmouth, VA, received an Inmarsat satellite notification stating the El Faro was beset by Hurricane Joaquin, had lost propulsion, and had a 15-degree list. The crew reported the ship had previously taken on water, but that all flooding had been contained.

No further communications have been received from the vessel

A Coast Guard HC-130 search and rescue crew from Air Station Clearwater, Florida, spotted the life ring 120 nautical miles northeast of Crooked Island, Bahamas. A Coast Guard MH-60 helicopter crew recovered the life ring and confirmed it belonged to the missing ship.

Search and rescue crews have searched more than 30,000 square-miles since Thursday.

Sea conditions in the search area yesterday were reported to be 20 to 40-feet with winds in excess to 100 knots. Visibility for search and rescue flying between 500 and 1,000 feet was reported to be less than one nautical mile at times.

Tim Nolan, President of TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, issued the following statement regarding ongoing efforts to locate and communicate with the El Faro and her crew:

“This morning TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico’s second ship, the El Yunque, and a contracted tugboat reached the area between the last known vicinity of the El Faro and the location that the Coast Guard recovered a life ring yesterday and carried out a visual survey.

“The two vessels discovered a container, which appears to be from the El Faro, and observed what appears to be an oil sheen.

“At this time there has been no sighting of the El Faro or any life boats.

“TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico and the Coast Guard remain focused on the continuing  search for the crew.  The contracted tugs as well as other vessels transiting the area are also keeping a lookout for any sign of the ship.

Our thoughts and prayers remain with the 33 individuals aboard the ship and their families.  They are our number one priority.”

A Coast Guard pilot searching for the missing containership, near the eye of hurricane Joaquin, recounts the weather conditions Oct. 3, 2015. The Coast Guard has been searching since Oct. 1, after losing communications with the El Faro.

U.S. Coast Guard video

ABS gets $8 million Military Sealift Command award

Work will be performed worldwide and is expected to be completed by September 30, 2016.  Working capital contract funds in the amount of $8,000,000 are subject to availability in fiscal 2016 funds, and will expire at the end of fiscal 2016.

This contract was not competitively procured, in accordance with statue 46 U.S. Code 3316.

The Navy’s Military Sealift Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity (N00033-13-D-8015).

Damen delivers fast cats to three Korean ferry operators

The first vessel, the SeaStar 5, was delivered earlier this year to existing Damen customer Seaspovill,

Built at Damen Shipyards Singapore, the SeaStar 5 is a DFF 4212 ferry, 42.2 m in length with a beam of 11.6 m built to carry 450 people between Gangneung on the east coast of South Korea and the island of Ulleung-Do.

High levels of comfort characterize the passenger spaces, which are distributed over the main deck, which can accommodate 306 persons, and the upper deck, which caters for 144.

Powered by four MTU main engines (16V2000 M72), Sea Star 5 can reach speeds exceeding 40 knots.

The second delivery this year came in May, when operator Daezer Shipping took delivery of a DFFe 4212 named Sunrise. Delivered within three months of ordering, the vessel has the same powering arrangement and same speed capability as the SeaStar 5.

Sunrise is currently operating a route of very popular tourist destinations on Koreas East-coast from the island of Ulleung to Dokdo.

As a relatively new ferry operator and new customer to Damen, this recent acquisition has seen Daezer increase service offering in the region.

The third delivery of the year took place in late August when  the Queen Star 2 was delivered to established operator Seaworld Express Ferry Co. for operation on a three-hour route from Usuyoung Port to the popular tourist destination of Jeju Island via Chujado Island.

This is the first delivery of Damen’s newly designed DFFe 4010 with a controllable pitch propeller (CPP), providing increased fuel efficiency at different speeds and loading conditions.

Although slightly smaller than the DFFe 4212, the DFFe 4010 can accommodate to the same amount of 450 maximum passengers and with two engines instead of four; the vessel can still reach a top speed of 35 knots.

USCG searches for TOTE ship caught by Hurricane Joaquin

 

The El Faro, a 735-foot TOTE Maritime RO/RO cargo ship, was en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Jacksonville, FL. At about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, watchstanders at the Coast Guard Atlantic Area command center in Portsmouth, VA, received an Inmarsat satellite notification stating the El Faro was beset by Hurricane Joaquin, had lost propulsion, and had a 15-degree list.

The crew reported the ship had previously taken on water, but that all flooding had been contained.

Watchstanders at the Coast Guard 7th District command center in Miami launched an HC-130 aircrew out of Clearwater, FL, to search for the El Faro.

As of this afternoon, Coast Guard watchstanders and rescue crews had still been been unable to reestablish communications with the El Faro crew.

Two Air Force C-130 Hurricane Hunter aircrews attempted to locate and reestablish communications with the El Faro unsuccessfully Thursday. Coast Guard crews remained on scene and continue search efforts today by both air and sea.

At a press conference today Coast Guard Captain Mark Fedor said the Coast Guard was pushing its assets to their operational limits in the search for the vessel and the 33 people on board.

Tim Nolan, President of TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico issued the following statement on the incident:

On September 29, the El Faro, one of TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico’s two ships departed Jacksonville en-route to San Juan Puerto Rico.

At the time of the El Faro’s departure, the vessel’s officers and crew were monitoring what was then Tropical Storm Joaquin. As of 720am EST on Thursday October 1, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico lost all communication with the El Faro. The US Coast Guard was immediately notified and since then we have been unable to reestablish communication.

There are a number of possible reasons for the loss of communications among them the increasing severity of Hurricane Joaquin.

TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico’s primary concern is for the safety and well-being of the 33 individuals on board.

We are working to ensure clear and frequent communications with their families and loved ones as we learn more.We have reached out to the families of those impacted and have established open lines of communication to provide them with timely updates. Our thoughts and prayers are with the individuals and their families.

TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico is working closely with the US Coast Guard and all available resources to establish communication by whatever means possible.

MARAD funding for TOTE LNG conversion study

OCTOBER 2, 2015 — The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) has announced a $900,000 cooperative agreement with TOTE Maritime to further develop knowledge regarding the costs and benefits of vessel conversions to liquefied

ME-GI for first Crowley ConRo passes milestone test

The engine is the first of two 8S70ME-C8.2-GI units for delivery to VT Halter Marine, Pascagoula, MS, for installation in the two 2,400 TEU ConRo ships it is building for Crowley Maritime Corporation.

The vessels will be two of the world’s first LNG-powered ConRo ships, with container Lift-on/Lift-off (LO/LO) and vehicle Roll-on/Roll-off (RO/RO) loading. Designed to travel at speeds up to 22 knots, they will be 219.5 m long, 32.3 m wide and have a deep draft of 10 m. In addition to carrying 2,400 TEU of containers they will be able to carry nearly 400 vehicles in an enclosed Roll-on/Roll-off garage.

Crowley ordered the ME-GI engines, along with three MAN 9L28/32DF auxiliary engines for each vessel, in early-2014. The company selected the high-pressure, Diesel-cycle ME-GI engines because of their high efficiency and power concentration. The ME-GI’s ability to avoid derating, and its negligible methane slip, also contributed to its selection.

Crowley reports that the newbuildings will reduce the amount of CO2 emissions attributable to each container by approximately 38%.

The ships will meet or exceed all regulatory requirements and will have the CLEAN notation, which requires limitation of operational emissions and discharges, as well as the Green Passport, both issued by DNV GL.

The ME-GI engine

The ME-GI engine is the culmination of many years’ work, and gives shipowners and operators the option of utilizing fuel or gas depending on relative price and availability, as well as environmental considerations.

The ME-GI uses high-pressure gas injection that allows it to maintain the numerous positive attributes of MAN B&W low-speed engines that have made them the default choice of the maritime community. The ME-GI is not affected by the multiple de-ratings, fuel-quality adjustments or large methane-slip issues that have been seen with other dual-fuel solutions.

MAN Diesel & Turbo sees significant opportunities ahead for gas-fueled tonnage as fuel prices rise and exhaust emission limits tighten. Research indicates that the ME-GI engine delivers significant reductions in CO2, NOx and SOx emissions. Its negligible methane slip makes it even more environmentally friendly

An ME-LGI counterpart that uses LPG, methanol and other liquid gases is also available, and has already been ordered.
Factory Acceptance Test attendees pictured in front of the ME-GI engine at MES’s Tamano Works

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