  
|
Posted By Kim Fisher,
16 November 2022
|
This was a full length eight-day meeting of the Committee and the first meeting since the pandemic to be conducted as a physical meeting in the IMO building and was very well attended. Remote access was also possible. The Chair was Mrs Mayte Medina of the USA and there was again a very heavy workload but the easier meeting arrangements facilitated very good progress to be made including dealing with the backlog after the years of remote working.
The previous meeting of the sub-committee on Navigation, Communications, Search and Rescue (NCSR) held in June had considered difficulties raised by Ukraine of managing Search and Rescue operations in warzone areas and requested developing suitable provisions at this meeting. This was achieved with the drafting of a resolution to remind Member States of their responsibilities under the SOLAS and SAR Conventions in the context of armed conflicts.
Work continued on Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) towards developing a MASS Code for cargo ships. A Correspondence Group reported on its work and a meeting had been held of a Joint MSC/LEG/FAL working group incorporating the Legal and Facilitation Committees. It is intended that the Joint working group will now meet twice a year and the Correspondence Group will continue with its work.
A new resolution was agreed on Recommended cooperation to ensure the safety of life at sea, the rescue of persons in distress at sea end the safe disembarkation of survivors.
A new SOLAS chapter XV was adopted on Safety measures for ships carrying industrial personnel together with an associated Code.
The previous meeting of NCSR had considered the application by China for the recognition of the BeiDou Message Service System (BDMSS) for use in the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). A technical assessment had been performed by the International Maritime Satellite Organization (IMSO) but it had not been possible to complete this for lack of an on site inspection which had not been possible due to the pandemic. An on site inspection had been conducted subsequently which was reported to the meeting. The meeting decided to accept this and agreed to recognise the Chinese system. There are still issues regarding the radio frequencies however to be resolved before BDMSS will be able to operate along side Inmarsat and Iridium.
The NCSR meeting had also completed revised performance standards for the electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) to facilitate the introduction of the new S-100 electronic charts. An input to this meeting from China suggested deferring the approval of 1 January 2029 as the mandatory application date of the new ECDIS. However this was not accepted by the committee.
New work items were agreed for a revision of SOLAS V/23 on safety of pilot transfer arrangements, and a review of SOLAS IV/5 on provision of radiocommunication services. A proposal to amend SOLAS in order to allow coastal States to receive Long Range Information and Tracking (LRIT) information free of charge was not accepted. As a consequence of a report of the UN Panel of Experts regarding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), NCSR was tasked to carry out a review of security standards for preventing the tampering of AIS transponders used to disguise illicit oil deliveries.
The meeting noted the recent death of Christian Breinholt of Denmark who was MSC chair from 2012 to 2015. The meeting bade farewell to Captain Moin Ahmed the Director-General of IMSO who was ending his term after 8 years. The new Director-General will be Laurent Parente of Vanuatu.
The next meeting has been scheduled for 31 May to 9 June 2023. A meeting of the IMO/ITU Joint Experts Group has been scheduled for 5 to 9 December 2022. The next meeting of NCSR is scheduled for 8 to 17 May 2023.
Tags:
IMO
International Maritime Organization
maritime
safety
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By John Hasselgren,
14 November 2022
|
Hydrography at the Port of London Authority
- Talk by John Dillon-Leetch, Port Hydrographer
Report by John Hasselgren
This fascinating and informative talk was given as one of the Small Craft Group’s collaborations with the Royal Thames Yacht Club.
John started by giving a brief synopsis of his journey from sailing on the West Coast of Ireland, becoming a Yachtmaster, then working in offshore oil and gas before joining the PLA and working up to his present position as Port Hydrographer.
We were then informed a that London was a Trust Port covering 400 square miles, with 95 miles of the river and its estuary and 70 wharves and terminals. By tonnage, 50 million per annum, it is the UK’s largest port. West of London the river is mainly used for recreation, the centre, in London, is mostly used as a road with 90 million passenger journeys, while east of London it is mainly commercial.
The PLA has a Vision Document for the desired future of the Thames, Thames Vision 2050. Here it sets out how it wants the Thames to develop under three main headings:
Trading Thames. Here it looks to be a competitive port, close to the UK’s largest market. Improved connectivity with road and rail infrastructure is its aim, with innovative solutions to expand the use of the river as a means of transporting varied light freight into central London instead of using the roads.
Destination Thames. The river needs to be accessible to all, with visitors drawn to it as the best way to enjoy London with its cultural attractions, and to use its leisure facilities.
Natural Thames. The aim is to have a clean river, free from sewage, waste and pollution supporting greater biodiversity and recreation. It should be valued for its clean air and wildlife as well as being a natural flood defence and carbon sink. More people should be living, working and taking relaxation around the river.
Moving onto the role of Hydrographic Services John described it Statuary Duties. These included the provision of charts for the safety of navigation, data analysis and mapping, provision of river advice and commercial survey work. Who needed these services? Mariners, Harbour Masters, Pilots, terminals and stakeholders. The challenges? Trade growth, available depths, the transition to digital charting, advances in technology and climate change.
Ship owners want their vessels to carry the maximum amount of cargo. This increases draft and minimizes under keel clearance. If insurers agree, this is usually 10% of the ship’s draft. An increase in the accuracy of surveys, leading to perhaps an extra 10cm of water could result in an extra 10,000 containers moving up the river.
Climate change could be a blessing with higher rainfall and rising sea levels leading to a reduced need to dredge. On the other hand it could also lead to extra water running down the river, with overload on the sewer system and increased pollution. Hence the need for the super sewer being built along the Thames beneath the river.
Pilots have their own electronic carry on board system, with the latest PLA charts. The PLA already has 160 pilots and is currently recruiting 16 new pilots a year to allow for natural losses and expected increase in demand. The surveying of the various channels was required to allow pilots to plan safe passage for vessels, making sure there was a safe UKC along the whole of the expected route. This would often require a vessel to reduce speed to allow the tide to rise sufficiently for the draft + 10% rule. To assist this we learnt that the tide heights from tidal gauges were broadcast regularly, together with any deviation from predicted heights. Next year it is expected that dredging will cost up to £200 million. Data recording is important as it allows comparison with earlier surveys indicating which channels are stable and which are likely to require dredging. Bringing a ship up the Thames, perhaps from the Sunk to its berth, is a bit like driving a heavy goods lorry up a motorway where the width of the road halves and bridge heights reduce by 6 metres every six hours.
To assist with the survey work the PLA has three vessels, Maplin, Thames and Galloper. The latter, Galloper, is capable of being loaded onto a trailer meaning that she can be transported to conduct surveys in other waters. Until 1991 all positions were fixed by horizontal sextant angles as GPS was considered too inaccurate for serious survey work. Since then GNSS has been used. In addition to these vessels, new technology is being introduced in the form of remotely controlled or autonomous small vessels, surface or sub-surface, and drones. The side scan sonar equipment can be moved from one to the other. As John Dillon-Leetch explained, the equipment may be fitted into a vessel costing £1.5 million or an AV costing £8 thousand. The AV, he said, needed no crew accommodation, galley nor heads. Also, they are quiet, non-polluting and the data is available in real time.
Responding to a question John explained that the PLA’s jurisdiction extended from Teddington down river and out east to the Gunfleet Sands, south to Margate Sand then west to the Isle of Sheppey.
Moving on to charts, the PLA produces its own portfolios of A2 size charts of the river and estuary which may be purchased. There are also charts at much larger scale for use in work areas or ships’ berths. These may be viewed on the PLA web site, which is well worth checking out.
As a finale we were shown scans of some of the Estuary’s sunken vessels including the steel barque Dovenby which sank in 1914 with a cargo of guano. Also shown was the SS Richard Montgomery off Sheerness which still contains a cargo of explosives from the 2nd. World War. She is surveyed regularly to check the state of the deck; the masts are currently of concern and there are plans to cut them down before they fall. Just to prove that the PLA do sometimes work on contract to other authorities and businesses we saw a survey of the remains of the power station wall at Bradwell Power Station on the River Blackwater.
Tags:
hydrography
leisure sailing
maritime
small craft group
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By James Taylor OBE FRIN,
27 July 2022
|
Well, just for a moment it was looking good. Well, if not good, at least a bit better. Agreement had been reached between Ukraine and the Russian Federation (RF) under the auspices of Turkey as gate-keeper of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles under the Montreux Convention, for a re-start to the export of grain from 3 Ukrainian ports, but most notably, Odessa. The lack of this grain is driving countries into food poverty, and the continuation of grain shipping is, literally, vital, especially in the Horn of Africa, where famine looms, and in Egypt. The world's reliance on Ukraine as a bread basket is massive. Getting grain cargoes out of Ukraine will not be without risk, from mines, or from intervention by Russian warships; war is never without risk. But at least we had some form of agreement.
Which makes Russia's missile attack within 24 hours of the agreement, on the port facilities of Odessa a new high water mark of brutal and violent cynicism, even by Russian standards. We learned today that there is every chance that grain exports will re-start soon, which pays tribute to the remarkable resilience of Ukraine, but this vital work needs to be supported and facilitated and made as safe as is reasonable in the circumstances. Ships, long held in Ukrainian ports since the start of the war, will need technical and personnel support. Safe channels will need to be charted and marked, physically or virtually. Aids to navigation must have added resilience. So I'm asking maritime colleagues to prod their organisations, Associations, Institutes, Chambers of Shipping and Government departments to help make this happen. If we do not, then very many people, people without number, will starve. We can help prevent that.
James Taylor OBE FRIN
IAIN delegate to IMO & RIN Council member
Tags:
Aids to Navigation
Maritime
Resilience
Shipping
Ukraine
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Kim Fisher,
03 May 2022
|
This was a full length eight-day meeting of the Committee but again limited to 3 hours a day using the KUDO platform. The Chair was Mrs Mayte Medina of the USA and there was again a very heavy workload with 146 input papers. Two agenda items – Goal-based standards and Any Other Business had been addressed by correspondence before the meeting to save meeting time but it was still not possible to complete the agenda.
Given the current world events an exceptional item was added to the agenda concerning the situation of seafarers affected by the hostilities in Ukraine. It was reported that at the beginning of the conflict 96 vessels from 26 flag states with 1000 seafarers on board had been locked in Ukrainian ports. This had now reduced to 84 vessels from 24 flag states with 550 seafarers on board but with reports of damaged, sunk and commandeered ships. It was proposed to generate an MSC resolution, and after a long debate this was achieved on Actions to facilitate the urgent evacuation of seafarers from the war zone area in and around the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov as a result of the Russian Federation aggression against Ukraine.
On the agenda was the adoption of amendments to Chapter IV (Radiocommunications) of the International Convention on the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and associated documents. This was the outcome of the exercise to update the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) and the performance standards for the radio equipment, a task that had been ongoing since 2009. The adoption was successfully achieved including a late proposal from China to add a requirement to receive unscheduled information broadcasts to the NAVTEX performance standards. The amendments will now be accepted on 1 July 2023 and enter into force on 1 January 2024.
Also on the agenda was Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). A circular had been issued after the MSC103 meeting reviewing the mandatory instruments related to maritime safety and security and establishing how they would be affected by autonomous navigation. Work had continued in a Correspondence Group and was further developed by a Working Group at the meeting. This resulted in a proposal to develop a non-mandatory goal-based MASS Code limited to cargo ships as a first step. The work will be progressed by a further Correspondence Group and a new Joint MSC/LEG/FAL working group incorporating the Legal and Facilitation Committees.
Further on the agenda was the issue of cost implications for Maritime Safety Information (MSI) providers as new GMDSS service providers are recognised in addition to Inmarsat. Each new service provider will require payment for transmitting the MSI messages. A correspondence group had studied the issue and a Working Group discussed the issues further at the meeting. Whilst options for cost reduction had been identified it was not found to be possible to conclude on any particular option. The issue will now be referred to the next meeting of the sub-committee on Navigation Communications and Search and Rescue (NCSR) for further study.
The draft model regulations for domestic ferry safety prepared at the last meeting were completed and adopted as a resolution. The intent is it that these can be voluntarily and practically incorporated into national legislation to reduce accidents related to domestic ferry safety.
The proposals for new work items which had been carried over from the previous meeting were discussed but there was insufficient time to fully complete the list. Of navigation interest a proposal for Guidelines for the use of Electronic Nautical Publications (ENPs) was agreed. A proposal for Standardized digital exchange of route plans was agreed. Noting that NCSR already has an agenda item to amend the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) performance standards, it may be possible to combine this new work with the existing work. A proposal for upgrading the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) on existing ships to the latest standards, which have a 30-day recording period, was not agreed as it was considered that the life expectancy of existing VDRs would in practice achieve the objective. In conclusion the Chair did not again rule that no further proposals for new work would be accepted until the existing backlog had been cleared but urged the members not to send any more proposals to the next meeting.
At the conclusion of the meeting, it was noted that Ms Turid Stemre of Norway and Ms Christine Gregory and Mr Hans van der Graff of the Secretariat were retiring.
The next meeting has been scheduled for 2 to 11 November 2022 and a further meeting is expected from 31 May to 9 June 2023. The next meeting of NCSR is scheduled for 21 to 30 June 2022.
Tags:
IMO
International Maritime Organization
Maritime
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By John Hasselgren.,
18 October 2021
|
This annual meeting was held on line via Cisco Webex on 7th. October. Hopefully, this report will give a flavour of meeting.
Information was given on the progress of the new vessel to replace THV Patricia, which will be retired. Approval for the new vessel has been given by the DfT and the Cabinet Office, with financial assurance provided by the Treasury. The new design is to be for a vessel capable of undertaking the core tasks of Trinity House such as buoy maintenance, lighthouse support and survey work, but with greater emphasis placed on heavy weather performance. This last is required due to a Risk Response review which, having considered modern traffic analysis, requires six hour and twelve hour responses in certain critical areas, most of which fall within the Trinity House area of responsibility. Propulsion and on board services will use a hybrid system to reduce fuel consumption, with stored batteries supplying the needs during periods of low power use. Tender documents have now been released to yards that were able to meet pre-selection criteria.
Support vessel operations for the three TH vessels Alert, Galatea and Patricia, along with the chartered MV Mair were shown. These indicated that Galatea and Patricia had carried out the majority of the annual buoy servicing and that Alert and Mair had completed most of the hydrographic surveys undertaken. The Covid-19 pandemic had required the crews of each vessel to have been tested prior to embarkation and then to operate in their own bubbles. More recent easing of restrictions had allowed Alert’s main crane to be replaced, providing a more reliable unit requiring reduced maintenance.
The modernization of Lundy North Lighthouse has been completed, allowing an increase in the nominal range to 18NM. Projects to modernize the lighthouses at St. Tudwals, Lynmouth Foreland and St. Catherine’s are progressing. At St. Tudwals the solar panels are being moved from ground level onto the tower, all electronics are being renewed and the current roof mounted emergency lantern will be moved into the tower. Lynmouth Foreland rotating optic is being changed to a modern LED unit which will only be displayed at night, thus reducing the power needed. St. Catherine’s electrical system is being upgraded and the light reduced to a nominal 18NM, made possible by modern navigation systems used in vessels and the fact that passing traffic tends to be further offshore. The red sector along the West coast of the Isle of Wight is being maintained as it is extremely important to vessels navigating to and from the Needles Channel.
Discussions revealed a request for the installation of a 5G mast on the St. Catherine’s site to provide coverage over the Solent. This could provide suitable contact with future autonomous vessels and also coverage of sailing events such as the Round the Island Race to broadcasters.
Modernization of Flamborough Head and Farne Lighthouses is being planned. The lantern range at Flamborough Head will be reduced to 18 NM and the Hazard Warning Signal will become the standard 1 blast every 30 seconds. The red sector at Farne lighthouse will be increased from 7 to 8NM, with a more efficient light source and upgraded electronics.
The decommissioning of Royal Sovereign Lighthouse continues and has passed government approval, with the tendering process under way. Tenderers will be free to propose their own method of removal and allowed to spread this over three summers. The lighthouse was built in 1969 with an expected life of 50 years and is now deteriorating beyond economic repair. Altered traffic patterns, coupled with improvements at Beachy Head Lighthouse plus an offshore buoy, have made it less relevant.
Both Channel Lightvessel and Sunk Centre Lightvessel have been replaced by buoys. Traffic patterns over 28 days were shown, both before and after the removal of the lightvessels, and these indicated almost exactly similar patterns. The new Channel Light Buoy has meteorological equipment installed on it, designed with the Met Office, and will continue to provide data to feed into met forecasting models as well as offering real time information to local users.
Trinity House now have six lightvessels and one lightfloat on station, mostly marking significant dangers. All are getting old and need more frequent docking for maintenance. No decision has yet been made about their replacement, but any new design will no longer have to include crew space.
A major project is under way to replace the current monitoring method at lighthouses, lightvessels and significant buoys. This is currently achieved using a Vodafone VHF system called Paknet which they intend to close down in the near future. The stations will then be monitored using a mix of 4G and Iridium satellite communications.
As previously announced the DGPS system will cease at the end of March 2022. The MCA has issued MIN665 on this.
Moving on to Offshore Renewables we learned that 337 AtoNs at 35 sites were inspected and 29 were found to be defective. This is a marked improvement on the previous year, helped by increasing assistance and positive engagement received from the Crown Estates. It currently seems likely that the tidal power development off the Isle of Wight near St. Catherine’s will be started next year. Trinity House is waiting to see if consent will be given by the Secretary of State for BEIS (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – yes, I had to look it up!) for projects at North Vanguard, Norfolk Boreas, East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two. Also waiting on the decision by the Welsh Assembly on power developments at Morlais off Anglesea.
Construction is due to start on windfarms on the Dogger Bank, with Trinity House fully engaged with the lighting and marking for these sites. They are also engaged with the developers on numerous projects, including Floating Offshore Windfarm developments in the Celtic Sea, two large windfarms between the Mersey and the Isle of Man, and all the planned extensions to existing windfarms.
The BEIS (see above) have commenced a review of “National Policy Statements on Energy”, which is due to run until 29th. November. Trinity House are engaged in the process and recommend others with interests in Shipping and navigation to engage in this at:
(https://beisgovuk.citizenspace.com/energy-strategy-networks-markets/energy-nps/)
Although no member of GRAD was present, documentation provided an update of their work. This includes working with Emu Analytics Ltd. to develop a means of predicting ship movements around windfarms using AI – Continuing work on the BinoNav® method of transferring bearings to an electronic chart, which the Nautical Institute is keen to support – Improving the efficiency of LED lights with trials of a 24 sided lamp, fitted with 72 LEDs, for installation in traditional optics – A study of how Machine Vision could be used to enhance electronic navigation at sea using a camera for flash detection in poor visibility. This last one must please Andy Norris.
John Hasselgren.
Tags:
Leisure Vessels
Maritime
Sailing
Trinity House
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
Blog Home
All Blogs
RSS