Fire Fighting Systems News

SCHOTTEL is to equip six new ASD tugs of the Turkish Med Marine Group with the SCHOTTEL RudderPropeller (SRP). The new vessels will be built by Med Marine’s Ereğli Shipyard and will be available in 2025 to meet the constantly growing demand for Med Marine tugs. A total of 12 SCHOTTEL RudderPropellers in the SRP 360, SRP 430 and SRP 490 series will be built for the new vessels by the German manufacturer of marine propulsion systems. The new tugs will cater for a range of different bollard pull requirements in the 50-…

Dutch marine services provider Seacontractors announced it has acquired two secondhand anchor handling tugs from Boskalis.Classed by Bureau Veritas with an unrestricted sailing area, the 2013-built Seraya and Sentosa each offer 120 tons bollard pull capability. They are able to carry 860m3 of fuel and provide a generous deck space of 200m2. Both 51.8-meter-long vessels have accommodation on board for 24 persons. Moreover, their fully integrated fire fighting systems enhance their…

Lloyd’s Register has reminded the industry that the Member Authorities of the Paris and Tokyo Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control (PSC) are launching a joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on fire safety from September 1 to November 30, 2023.The Member Authorities of the Black Sea Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control and the Member Authorities of the Acuerdo Vina Del Mar 1992 are concurrently also launching a CIC.The purpose of the campaign…

The Member Authorities of the Tokyo and the Paris Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control will launch a joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Fire Safety in September.The purpose of the campaign is to create awareness among the ship’s crew and owners about the importance of fire safety measures and to verify that the ship complies with fire safety requirements under the relevant IMO instruments.This inspection campaign will be held for three months, commencing from September 1, 2023 and ending November 30, 2023.

The Member Authorities of the Tokyo and the Paris Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control will launch a joint ConcentratedInspection Campaign (CIC) on Fire Safety to create awareness among the ship’s crew and owners about the importance of fire safety measures; and  to verify that the ship complies with fire safety requirements under the relevant IMO instruments.The three-month inspection campaign will commence September 1, 2023 and end November 30, 2023, and will…

Survival Technology solutions provider Survitec has won a contract to supply advanced fire-fighting systems to a pair of 48,000grt LNG dual-fuelled eco ferries under construction at Finland’s Rauma Marine Constructions  (RMC) for Australian shipowner Spirit of Tasmania."This is a major order from a returning customer,” said Michal Peruga,  General Manager, Survitec, Poland. “This contract win demonstrates our  ability to go beyond simple equipment supply to being able to provide a  complete bespoke fire safety solution for all areas of the ship…

Kenya Port Authority's new tug,  Mwokozi II, was delivered to her home port of Mombasa on January 10, 2022.The Mwokozi II is a custom design 42-meter, 120 tonne bollard pull RAstar 4200 salvage and harbor tug developed by Robert Allan Ltd., with particularly outstanding performance in maneuvering, seakeeping, and stability.The Turkish shipbuilder Med Marine was contracted to build the new tugboat at its group owned Eregli Shipyard. The keel was laid on March 23, 2020, and construction…

Ocean Group announced it has signed a 10-year agreement with the Port of Vancouver to provide port towing services at the two Roberts Bank terminals, Deltaport and Westshore Terminals. Starting July 19, Ocean Group will mobilize two Damen ASD Tug 2813 tugs equipped with fire fighting systems and IMO Tier III engines.Ocean Group began operations in the Port of Vancouver in March 2020 with two tugs. Since then, the company has increased the number of its tugs present in this territory with the arrival of new tugs, and then with the acquisition of Samson Tugboats.

Svitzer Suez 1, the first RAstar 2800-CL ASD escort tug, has been delivered to Svitzer Egypt LLC by Cheoy Lee Shipyards and will soon commence operations in the Suez Canal. Svitzer are the first owners of this new escort tug design and a further nine tugs to this design have already been ordered with Cheoy Lee.The RAstar 2800-CL design started with a “blank sheet of paper”, according to naval architecture firm Robert Allan Ltd., who said one of the primary goals of the design was to make it extremely flexible allowing for various propulsion machinery options…

After a 30-day voyage from Altinova, Turkey, SAAM Towage's newest tug SAAM Palenque has arrived in Colón, Panama, where the company provides towage services on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.SAAM Towage Country Manager in Panama, Matia de Luiggi said, “We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this new tug, which will be an important reinforcement for our fleet. A compact vessel with advanced fire-fighting systems, it has all the technical specs for safely, efficiently serving…

The proliferation of serious fires onboard container ships in recent years has shocked the shipping industry. Here we examine the causes and impact of such fires and the urgent efforts being made by a wide variety of stakeholders to solve this seemingly intractable problem.Over the last decade there has been a 70% fall in ship total losses[1]. This has been widely credited to long term improvements in ship safety management and loss prevention programs. Counter to this trend, there has been a substantial increase in the number of fires in containers carried onboard container and RoRo ships.

Genoa, Italy based Rimorchiatori Riuniti Group took delivery in February of a modified version of Robert Allan Ltd.'s TRAktor 2500-SX standard design from Turkih builder Sanmar Shipyards.The addition of Italia, a modern Z-drive tractor to their fleet could potentially signal a renewed interest in Z-drive tractor tugs for the group.Robert Allan Ltd. and Sanmar Shipyards worked with Rimorchiatori Riuniti to modify the design to suit the owner's requirements. Such modifications include rescue boat and davit on the foredeck…

Classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has issued what it says is first of its kind ‘Guide for Fire-Fighting Systems for Cargo Areas of Container Carriers’,  as it looks to address safety concerns following a series of high profile fires at sea.It is designed predominantly for designers, builders, owners, operators throughout the marine industry and specifies the ABS requirements for addressing fire safety concerns in four key areas: fire-fighting for containers stowed on deck, fire-fighting for containers stowed below, fire safety of the deckhouse and container hold flooding as a measure for fire-fighting.“Container Carriers have grown much larger in recent years and the volume of cargo carried has expanded significantly. In addition, the nature of the cargo has changed.

Jensen Maritime, Crowley Maritime Corp.’s Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering company, has provided the detailed design for Shaver Transportation Company’s new, Z-drive tug – Samantha S. The multi-purpose tug was built at Diversified Marine Inc., in Portland, Ore., and is operating along the West Coast. The tug is ABS-classed and carries a FFV1 firefighting notation.The 112-foot by 44-foot tug has a 22-foot draft, was built for escort, ocean towing and ship assist, and has firefighting capabilities if needed. The tug features a raised pilot house and a squared forward end.

The first 70 metric ton bollard pull version of Robert Allan Ltd.’s TRAktor 2500-SX tractor tugs has been delivered to her Owner, Svitzer A/S of Denmark.The vessel was built by Sanmar Shipyards in Turkey, and christened Svitzer Vale. The vessel is the second TRAktor 2500-SX to be delivered and the first 70 metric ton configuration of this tug, designated by Sanmar as its Deliçay class.In order to allow for a high bollard pull in this length hull, the beam is relatively wide for the length.

ABS has updated the ABS Guide for Fire-Fighting Systems for On-Deck Cargo Areas of Container Carriers (FOC Guide), expanding its industry-leading guidance to the existing containership fleet. The FOC Guide goes beyond International Maritime Organization (IMO) requirements for container deck firefighting capabilities by supporting owners in navigating risks based on the unique characteristics of each container load, location of the container on the vessel and various firefighting spray patterns. The FOC Guide takes a comprehensive approach to assessing firefighting system pressure and capacity, while accounting for vessel size in its requirements.

Boluda Towage and Salvage has taken delivery of the newly built VB Xaloc, the first tug of the owner’s multi-boat order from Astilleros Zamakona and first of Robert Allan Ltd.’s TRAktor 3200-V class escort tugs. The TRAktor 3200-V was designed by Robert Allan Ltd. specifically to meet Boluda’s requirements for performance, propulsion equipment, accommodation facilities, tank capacities and all within a gross tonnage (GRT) limit of less than 500. According to the designer, extensive…

Class Society builds on long history of developing tools to drive optimization, compliance and safety in the containership sector. ABS released two new tools specifically focused on assisting the containership sector with pressing operational challenges. The Guide for Certification of Container Securing Systems (Container Securing Guide), along with its companion software, and the Guide for Fire-Fighting Systems for On-Deck Cargo Areas of Container Carriers (FOC Guide) each represent significant contributions to safety for the sector. “In today’s operating environment, containership owners must improve performance while maintaining reliability and safety,” said ABS Vice President for Container Ships Matt Tremblay.

It is difficult and expensive to do vessel-specific training well. This is probably why, unlike certification training, it is under specified, and in many cases poorly implemented - often via job shadowing. But there is a technology which is an excellent tool for vessel-specific training, and every vessel operator should be aware of it. It is called adaptive learning. This article describes adaptive learning and examines one vessel operator’s deployment of it in order to facilitate vessel-specific training across its fleet of 35 vessels.

The KSB Group located in Frankenthal, Germany, has supplied 70 pumps and around 700 butterfly valves to the new cruise ship Europa 2 run by Hamburg-based cruise ship organizer, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. The pumps’ spectrum of applications is varied and ranges from cooling the drives in the submerged pods to transporting seawater in ballast systems, supplying fire-fighting systems and handling fresh water, service water, waste water and sewage. All pumps are either manufactured from seawater-resistant bronze alloys or stainless steel. The drive ratings range from 0.37-75 kW.

Within the last year, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) has issued several port state control (PSC) detentions due to inoperative water mist systems on vessels trading to the US. In nearly every case, the water supply valve was found to be in the closed position during the PSC examination, essentially making the water mist system “not readily available for immediate use.” In many of the cases, the Chief Engineer was not aware that the water supply valve was in the closed position and was left in the closed position during maintenance.

Ulsteinvik-based Island Offshore has specified Unitor XFlow for two vessels under construction by Vard at its Brevik facility. The scope of the contract includes supply of a total flooding water mist system for the ship’s engine room and a local protection water mist system. The vessels which are being built to a Rolls-Royce design will be delivered to Island Offshore in 2014 and Q1 2015. Bergen-based GC Reiber will install the XFlow system on a seismic research vessel under construction at Myklebust Verft for delivery in 2015.

2.    chemical tankers intending to carry biofuel blends of gasoline and ethyl alcohol cargoes containing more than 1% but less than 75% of petroleum oil to use alcohol-resistant foam or multi-purpose foam concentrates in their cargo deck fire-fighting systems. Resolution MEPC.240(65) requires oil tankers that are carrying biofuel blended cargoes containing 75% or more of petroleum oil on or after the January 1, 2016, and are fitted with an ODM system (Marpol Annex I, Regulation 31), to have the system approved and tested for the individual biofuel blend.