For Ferries, Commercial Light at End of Regulatory Tunnel
A review of the ferry industry’s latest challenges and opportunities attracted a record 340 delegates to Vancouver last week for the 39th annual Interferry conference. The global trade association event exposed a string of concerns – notably over punitive safety and environmental regulations – but also highlighted the financial potential of new routes, onboard shopping incentives and the use of LNG fuel. Alongside sessions on the future of the industry, Canada-based CEO Len Roueche outlined a vision for maintaining Interferry’s influential lobbying role among politicians and regulators.
Bore and P&O Ferries JV add RoRo Vessel
Bore and P&O Ferries announces today that they have agreed to add a further RoRo vessel to the long-standing partnership in the North Sea. M/V Estraden will be added to the vessel portfolio sailing for P&O alongside M/V Norsky, M/V Norstream and M/V Bore Song. She will move to her new route in January 2015. M/V Estraden is a similar vessel to M/V Norsky and M/V Norstream, which have proven suitable for the P&O cargo trade. Bore has actively progressed towards sustainable shipping, decreasing the environmental footprint of its RoRo shipping. This has been manifested by decisions like installing NAPA Optimization on the vessels for fuel savings, wet scrubber system on M/V Bore Song, wind rotor system on M/V Estraden.
Jeff Lantz to Address Upcoming Interferry Annual Conference
The conference organizers inform that In a further response to the sinking of the South Korean ferry 'Sewol' in April, safety issues will be centre stage at InterferryÂ’s 39th annual conference, which takes place in Vancouver from October 4-8, 2014. Prompted by the incident, the trade association is already in dialogue with the IMO about assisting in efforts to improve domestic ferry safety. Now these and other cooperative safety initiatives will feature in a wide-ranging conference agenda addressing the industryÂ’s major regulatory, commercial and technical challenges. The IMOÂ’s latest safety strategy will be examined by special guest speaker Jeff Lantz, US Coastguard regulations director and chairman of the IMO Council.
Interferry Urges Proactive Approach to Industry Challenges
More than 250 top-level delegates attended trade association Interferry’s 38th annual conference in Malta to debate the major factors affecting ferry operations around the world. Under a new format mixing presentations with panel discussions and audience input, the event underlined the diversity of political, technical, operational and commercial issues challenging the industry. Among several sessions focused on safety, a former airline pilot confirmed the alarming certainty of human error…
Safety-conscious Interferry Sets Sights on Perfection Myth
The trade association event takes place in Malta from October 5-9 with an agenda dominated by safety issues. Insights on how the aviation industry builds and maintains safety culture will come from special guest speaker Jarle Gimmestad of Norway-based operational safety consultancy Gimmestad AS. He was previously with Scandinavian airline SAS as a captain and then as human factors and crew resource manager, which included working with the accident investigation group. Pointing to the continuously improving safety record of air travel, he noted, “There is a significant tendency - while undesired events used to be caused by technical insufficiency, we now realize that most are contributed by human error. We have left the myth of perfection. Human error is a natural part of human behavior.
What is in John Garner's Pocket
You don't really know a boat until she's hauled. Plying her trade on the water, her best half's submerged out of sight. We think we recognize her - "oh, there's Odin," or "Shelby Rose," or "Twintube" - but what are we seeing? The lines of the deckhouse, the shape and placement of the wheelhouse, the arrangement of the stacks? These are the parts known as the superstructure - "super," in this case, meaning simply "upon." It's a little like saying we recognize someone by his hat. The boat's defining structure starts at the main deck and goes downward from there. What little we see of it is low on the horizon. There's the deck's line, along with a smattering of bulwarks.
Talking About the John J. Harvey
Everybody talks about the John J. Harvey, and quite a few of them are doing something about it. The chipping, scraping, and painting you'd expect a 74-year-old fireboat to require has proceeded since the vessel became privately owned in 1999, but that's only the beginning of the discussion. For within the city the fireboat served for its first sixty years, a peculiar love/hate seems to have developed toward the harbor. That, more than leaks, can influence the future of the most historic of vessels, even as it affects contemporary ones doing their daily chores. The John J. Harvey was built for these waters in 1931, launched into them by the Todd shipyards at Brooklyn and serving them steadily, reliably, even heroically.
