MarineBuzz.com

Image Courtesy:Mapsofindia

Indian coastline stretches about 5700 kms on the mainland and about 7500 kms including the two island territories. With vast coast line, Indian Shipping Industry needs to develop more.

1.The overall Indian Shipping Scenario:

• With capacities in traditional shipbuilding nations such as Japan, South Korea and Norway booked for the next few years, global fleet owners have started looking at new destinations such as China, India and Vietnam to build their ships.Indian firms are increasingly getting into ship building and repairing as shipbuilding orders are expected to rise significantly to meet the boom in seaborne trade and increased offshore oil exploration.
• India currently has a market share of just 0.5% of the global shipbuilding market. Indian yards such as ABG Shipyard Ltd., Bharati Shipyard Ltd., Larsen & Toubro, Cochin Shipyard Ltd., Hindustan Shipyard Ltd., Mazagon Dock Ltd. and Tebma Shipyards Ltd. are looking to grab a bigger share of the global market and capture the space vacated by the closure of yards in Europe and other developed countries.
• Though India has 28 ship building yards, the largest ship built in the country is a 45,000 DWT vessel at Kochi Shipyard and none of the country’s shipyards have the capability to manufacture high-tech or sophisticated ships.
• Steel maker JSW is also planning to set up a shipbuilding facility either in Gujarat or in Maharashtra.
• India’s shipbuilding industry is expected to touch the $20 billion milestone by 2020, from close to $5 billion now which is about 1 percent by value of total global shipbuilding orders. Consequently, Indian ship builders are expanding their capacities with buyouts of other yards and assets. Shipping and engineering firms are also planning to set up shipbuilding yards to exploit the sector’s surging potential.
• Apart from existing players, the Tata Group, Shipping Corp. of India Ltd., the Jindal Group, Mercator Lines Ltd., Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd. and the Adani Group are also entering the shipbuilding business. The Gujarat state-controlled Gujarat Maritime Board is planning to set up 100 shipyards in 10 industrial clusters in the next five years. Garware Offshore has so far sold four designs to ABG Shipyard. The company has plans to set up a knowledge process outsourcing centre in India in collaboration with Havyard, which will design all types of marine assets. At present, Havyard is building two offshore ships for Garware Offshore.
• Engineering firm Larsen & Toubro already has one ship building yard in Gujarat state and plans to invest about $378.7m (15 billion rupees) for shipbuilding and a repair yard.
• Gujarat-based Adani group is setting up a ship building and repair yard at a cost of about $252.5m (10 billion rupees).
• Reliance Industries also plans to spend $2 billion on shipbuilding and dredging.
• Besides the location advantage that India enjoys since a large number of vessels sail through this part of Asia, Indian steel mills have started manufacturing steel plates used in shipbuilding.Earlier, shipbuilding steel used to be imported. Essar Steel is already manufacturing shipbuilding steel and plans to increase it with the commissioning of a 1.5-million-tonne plate plant in Gujarat next year.
• The government provided a 30-percent subsidy on value of ships built by Indian yards, which would sail under a foreign flag. The industry hopes this would be extended to help compete with their overseas competitors. This subsidy is also given to certain ships built for the local market. ABG Shipyard and its competitor Bharati Shipyard, which builds sophisticated offshore platform supply vessels, have started building rigs.

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Image Source:The Hindu

The name Tarangini comes from the Hindi word ‘Tarang’ meaning waves. She is the only Sail Training ship of the Indian Navy. She is termed as a three-masted Barque in sailing parlance i.e. square rigged on the Fore and Main masts and fore and aft rigged on Mizzen mast.

1. Sail Training Ship INS Tarangini:

INS Tarangini, arrived at Kochi on 29 October 2007, after a ten-month voyage named ‘Lokayan’ 07′, in which the ship called at 24 ports in 16 countries. In a function at the Naval Base Kochi, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Naval Command S K Damle welcomed the ship after it was escorted into the harbour by two tugs from the Naval Ship Repair Yard, sailing boats, water scooter and speed boats from Seamanship School. Important features of the voyage are listed below:

• During the voyage, the ship with a crew of seven officers and 43 sailors under Commander Sunil Balakrishnan trained 279 trainees from the Navy and 16 the of Indian Coast Guard besides embarking 18 foreign trainee officers from 15 countries including Australia, Canada, Brazil, UK, US, Netherlands and Sri Lanka.
• The ship, which set sail on 10 January 2007 on her third major voyage, traversed over 22,000 nautical miles covering major water bodies of the world including Atlantic Ocean and flying the Tricolour in the ports of Asia, Africa, North America and Europe.The ship,embarked cadets of the First Training Squadron, INS Shivaji, INS Mnadovi and naval cadets of the National Defence Academy (NDA), in batches at select ports of the voyage.
• Previous voyages:
  • Between January 2003 and April 2004: Tarangini had circumnavigated the globe with the theme of ‘Building Bridges of Friendship across the Oceans’ calling at 70 ports in 18 countries covering 34,923 nautical miles.
  • Between April 2005 to November 2005: The ship covered the high seas of Europe aimed at ‘Strenghtening the Bridges of Friendship across the Ships’ calling at 16 ports in 13 countries covering 15,000 nautical miles.

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Human survival - We can not survive without the forests, the oceans, the coral reefs, the marine fish, the algae, the insects that make up the living world around us.

1.What is Global Warming ?

Temperatures on Earth are livable because of natural process called as “Greenhouse Effect”. When the sun’s radiation reaches our atmosphere,some is reflected back into space and some passes through and is absorbed by Earth.This causes the surface of the Earth to warm up.Heat from the Earth is radiated outward and absorbed by “Greenhouse Gases” in the atmosphere.This process prevents heat from disappearing into space and keeps the Earth warm enough to sustain life.Some human activities (primarily the burning of fossil fuels) intensify the warming effect by releasing additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

These gases include carbon dioxide,methane and nitrous oxide.They come from varying sources and have different heat trapping capacities.

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Ms Mandy Shackleton, a qualified dive master, who watched 500 divers of several nationalities, including Britons, off the coast of Kenya has come out with the following facts after a two-year study of scuba divers. She is also a marine scientist at Hull University’s marine sciences centre.

• Women have better orientation, underwater.They have a greater awareness of what is going on around them.
• Women divers are much more aware of their surroundings than men.
• Women were found to be calmer, less aggressive and more safety conscious than their “gung-ho, sensation-seeking” male counterparts.
• Men took risks and were prone to showing off. The men experienced “a chain reaction of hormones” that caused them to lose their “buoyancy control” more easily than women. The stress hormone cortisol is released first, followed by testosterone – the hormone linked with aggression – and finally, adrenaline.The combination of these three results in erratic, dangerous diving.
• On an ecological level, men’s “spatially unaware” behaviour is damaging the world’s coral reefs. There is growing concern about the future of the reefs, which are vital habitats for thousands of fish species.Many male divers swim too close and break pieces off with their flippers or “fins”. Their flippers also churn up the seabed sediment, which “suffocates” and kills the living coral.
• More women prefer diving and they now make up about 40 per cent of all scuba divers. They do tend to have a more careful approach than men.

Source: Telegraph

OldSailor congratulates women divers for their superior performance underwater.

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This post is to highlight about Drydocks, more specifically about Floating Drydock.

To ensure seaworthiness of the ships, most ships are required to be drydocked twice every five years.Some ships may have drydocking postponed or the intermediate drydocking waived by performing an UnderWater Inspection in Lieu of Drydocking (UWILD).

Drydocking a ship is a complex task.The ship weighs a lot and the weight must be spread evenly to the dock.While a ship is floating the pressure holding the ship afloat is spread throughout the entire underwater hull.While in drydock the load is spread among wood blocks.There are also interferences such as transducers and irregularities such as flare at the bow.In order to drydock the ship the dockmaster must be aware of the characteristics of the ship’s bottom and it’s weight distribution.Therefore ships carry a docking plan which specifies where the blocks are to be placed, the angle of the side blocks, and the height of the side blocks.It also lists where transducers, sea chests, tailshafts, and other items are located.

1.Types of Drydocks:

• Graving Dock:A graving dock is a channel cut out of a basin or river in which a caisson is placed in front of the opening and water is pumped out. As the water is pumped out the ship is lowered on to the blocks. This type of dock can handle the largest of vessels.
• Marine Railway:This type of dock has blocks mounted on a skid and the skid is lowered into the water on rails. The ship is positioned and chains or line haul up the skid with the vessel on the blocks. In the past horses were used to power these railways. These railways typically do not have as much lifting power as a graving dock or a floating drydock.
• Floating Drydock:This type of dock is U-Shaped and can be sunk to allow the vessel to enter and be positioned.When the ship is in position the water in the ballast tanks of the dock is pumped out and the dock rises to meet the ship.Then the ship is lifted out of the water by the upward motion of the dock.This type of dock typically can lift heavier ships than the railway but not as heavy as a graving dock.The benefits of this dock are that it can be towed anywhere in the world and that it can be ballasted to lift a damaged ship with an excessive list or trim.
• Travel Lift:This system is for smaller vessels and tugboats.The travel lift incorporates a series of straps which are passed under the boat to lift it out of the water.Then the boat and travel lift can be driven to a place on land where the boat can be set on blocks.This system benefits in that no vessels will tie up your hauling machinery.Work does not have to be performed while the boat is in the lift as with the other docking methods.

Now let us see some of the Floating Drydocks.

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In one of our earlier post “Different Safety Signs in the ships explained” dated 09 October 2007, I had explained the basic signs used in ships. Now more specifically, I wish to highlight Deck and Engine Room Signs displayed in ships.

The different Deck and Engine Room Signs are shown below, which are self explanatory.

1.Prohibition Signs:

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Passenger friendly signs are displayed in International Seaports and Airports. In 1993, the ICAO & IMO Councils approved the joint publication of the third edition of Doc 9430, Which details the symbols to be used in all Seaports and Airports. Text only boards in English can not be understood by non English speaking passengers. Hence, Signs or Symbols are displayed prominently so that it can be easily understood.

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1.Floating swimming pool Mobideep:

(click to enlarge the image)

Here’s a novel idea that’s just come on the market - a floating swimming pool!
Called Mobideep, it takes just one day for the pool to be installed in still waters such as lakes, reservoirs and ponds - useful for scuba training and swimming lessons among other applications. Pools can also be linked together with interconnecting tunnels. With their own floating decks, the portable pools also offer optional hydro spa and powershowers.
The pool’s octagonal configuration measures 8.4 meters along the sides, and has an adjustable bottom - with depths ranging from zero down to seven meters - handy when you have small children.
Mobideep pools have an easy-to-construct modular design, complete with integrated filtration system. Filled by taking in the surrounding water through the filtration system, the pool encloses crystal-clear water that’s free from contaminants. The filling process takes a day to complete, and the best thing about this system is that it’s extremely economical- no hefty water bills!

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This post is to highlight about Sentinel, Intruder Detection Sonar designed to counter the threat of underwater attacks against ships, harbours, coastal industrial installations and offshore oil platforms.

1.System Overview:

A typical Sentinel IDS system comprises:

• a lightweight sonar head
• processor platform
• command workstation and advanced detection
• tracking and classification software

The Sonardyne Sentinel system has been developed using industry leading techniques, materials and processes. Spares-holding requirements and decreasing future obsolescence issues have been addressed by using COTS based technology.

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Australian and Israeli scientists have discovered the trigger for the planet’s biggest group sex spectacle: the mass spawning of hard corals along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.One week each year in spring, after a full moon, millions of corals release eggs and sperm in what Bill Leggat, a co-author of the new study, called “a slow symphony.”

1.Corals:

Coral organisms, called polyps, can live on their own, but are primarily associated with the spectacularly diverse limestone communities, or reefs, they construct.Coral polyps are tiny, soft-bodied organisms related to sea anemones and jellyfish. At their base is a hard, protective limestone skeleton called a calicle, which forms the structure of coral reefs. Reefs begin when a polyp attaches itself to a rock on the sea floor, then divides, or buds, into thousands of clones. The polyp calicles connect to one another, creating a colony that acts as a single organism. As colonies grow over hundreds and thousands of years, they join with other colonies and become reefs. Some of the coral reefs on the planet today began growing over 50 million years ago.

Coral polyps are actually translucent animals. Reefs get their wild hues from the billions of colorful zooxanthellae (ZOH-oh-ZAN-thell-ee) algae they host. When stressed by such things as temperature change or pollution, corals will evict their boarders, causing coral bleaching that can kill the colony if the stress is not mitigated.

Corals live in tropical waters throughout the world, generally close to the surface where the sun’s rays can reach the algae. While corals get most of their nutrients from the byproducts of the algae’s photosynthesis, they also have barbed, venomous tentacles they can stick out, usually at night, to grab zooplankton and even small fish.

Coral reefs teem with life, covering less than one percent of the ocean floor, but supporting about 25 percent of all marine creatures. However, threats to their existence abound, and scientists estimate that human factors—such as pollution, global warming, and sedimentation—could kill 30 percent of the existing reefs in the next 30 years.

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A quick thinking on “Why Navy Uniforms are White ?”, gave me some logical and funny reasoning.

When equal amounts of Red, Green and Blue light are combined, they produce white light.

In fact, White is a combination of rainbow colours VIBGYOR.

Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.

Now let us see the reasons.

1.The colour of the first ever clothes worn, was white only:

Cotton was the widely used material for making clothes in olden days which is white in colour. Navy is also the oldest global profession. So, the colour of the clothes worn by the seafarers were white. The process of dyeing or colouring the clothes were evolved later. Historically, China is the largest grower of cotton. The Chinese produced approximately 20 million bales of cotton in 2000. The U.S. is second, with 17.2 million bales of production in 2000.

2.Symbol of peace:

In olden days, seafarers traveled to different countries to explore the world. They achieved this as messengers of peace. White colour symbolises peace.

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As per IMO Circular FAL.2/Circ.87,MEPC/Circ.426,MSC/Circ.1151 dated 17 December 2004, the following Certificates and Documents are required to be carried by ships at sea.

The certificates and documents listed in the circular are only those required under IMO instruments and it does not include certificates or documents required by other international
organizations or governmental authorities.

All certificates to be carried on board must be originals.

1. Certificates and Documents required to be carried by all ships.

Table 1

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The prestigious International Maritime Prize for 2006 has been presented to Mr. Alfred Popp (Canada), former chairman of IMO’s Legal Committee on 22 October 2007.

Mr. Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, presented the prize during a special ceremony on Monday, 22 October 2007 during the 93rd session of IMO’s Legal Committee, which is being held in Panama City, Panama, from 22 to 26 October 2007.

The International Maritime Prize is awarded annually by IMO to the individual or organization judged to have made the most significant contribution to the work and objectives of IMO. The 98th session of the IMO Council in June 2007 took the decision to award the prize to Mr. Popp in recognition of his long and distinguished service to the cause of maritime safety and security and the protection of the marine environment, highlighted by his work representing Canada at IMO and his chairmanship of the IMO Legal Committee from 1993 to 2006.

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This post is to highlight on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion where significant development has been done but still under implementation as a commercial source. This is one of the Non-Conventioal Energy Sources.

1.Ocean Energy:

We are aware that approximately 70% area of the Planet Earth is covered by oceans. This makes the oceans as the world’s largest solar energy collector and energy storage system. On an average day, 60 million square kilometers (23 million square miles) of tropical seas absorb an amount of solar radiation equal in heat content to about 250 billion barrels of oil. If less than one-tenth of one percent of this stored solar energy could be converted into electric power, it would supply more than 20 times the total amount of electricity consumed in the United States on any given day.

2. OTEC:

OTEC or Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, is an energy technology that converts solar radiation to electrical energy. OTEC systems use the ocean’s natural thermal gradient—the fact that the ocean’s layers of water have different temperatures—to drive a power-producing cycle. As long as the temperature between the warm surface water and the cold deep water differs by about 20°C (36°F), an OTEC system can produce a significant amount of power. The oceans are thus a vast renewable resource, with the potential to help us produce billions of watts of electric power. The cold, deep seawater used in the OTEC process is also rich in nutrients, and it can be used to culture both marine organisms and plant life near the shore or on land.

The economics of energy production today have delayed the financing of a permanent, continuously operating OTEC plant. However, OTEC is very promising as an alternative energy resource for tropical island communities that rely heavily on imported fuel.

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1.F Diamond, Fashion TV’s luxurious fun n fashion ship:

• F Diamond offers a great deal of space for events, and when compared to cruise ships it is available at short notice.
• The ship has a sponsor which is ‘fashion tv’ who provides up to 50 models to stay on board and perform fashion shows by day and by night to entertain and add to the ambiance of any charter. This is without any additional charge to the charter client.
• Entertainment systems are of high quality and the ship has computerized management systems to control the sound and light equipment and the 262 plasma screens on board.
• Fashion tv can film and edit any cruise and party to give the guests a souvenir DVD, and corporate charterers can benefit from free publicity on the global fashion tv channel.
• The pool deck is an obvious focal point, but the ship has two large indoor bars, both of which have DJ consoles and can be used as dance areas. The upper deck also has a nightclub which is open air under a white canopy (newly fitted this year).
• The ship cruises smoothly at 15 to 17 knots and has an impressive maximum speed of around 20.5 knots.
• The accommodation is in 148 guest cabins, though if the models are on board then they will use roughly 48 cabins so there would be 100 cabins available (there could be slightly more if necessary). There are three standards of cabins including a small number of superior rooms. Each is en-suite, with new high quality linen, a Fashion TV plasma screen and air conditioning.This is the ideal vessel for parties of 50 to 700 people (1,030 maximum, even when cruising).

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