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Brittany Coast News

24 Apr 2023

Floating Wind Power Gains Traction But Can It Set Sail?

Credit: Untrakdrover/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

After a bumper year for floating offshore wind farm tenders, the nascent industry is poised for explosive growth in the coming decade as countries strive to cut their carbon emissions. But it's unlikely to be all plain sailing. Rising costs and supply chain bottlenecks have hit some projects and without investment in infrastructure to launch the vast turbines and tow them to sea, hopes of harnessing the full power of the ocean's winds to hit climate targets could be dashed, industry experts say.

29 Sep 2003

QM2 Passes Sea Trials

Cunard Line's flagship Queen Mary 2 returned from the sea after having completed her sea trials with flying colours. The largest, longest, tallest, widest, and at - $780-million - the most expensive passenger liner ever built underwent four days of rigorous testing of her power, manoeuvrability and vibration levels off the Brittany coast. The successful trials put QM2 right on schedule for her January 12 Maiden Voyage from Southampton, England, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to Captain Ronald Warwick…

13 Nov 2003

QM2 Completes Final Sea Trials

Cunard Line's flagship Queen Mary 2 returned from the sea for the second time on Tuesday having successfully completed her final series of sea trials off the Brittany coast. QM2 is the largest, longest, tallest, widest, and at - $780-million - the most expensive liner ever built. The successful trials, where the ship consistently exceeded 30 knots, put her right on schedule for her January 12 maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to Fort Lauderdale. During the sea trials, QM2 underwent performance tests that consisted of three runs over a 10-mile-long course. At various points, the ship was stabilised at speed during which very accurate measurements were taken to establish an average speed.

07 Apr 2000

Activists Stage Erika Protest, TotalFina Mulls Oil Treatment Contract

Thousands of protesters from western France marched through Paris on April 1 to demand tighter shipping laws in the wake of the Erika oil tanker spill which devastated parts of their region. The march was called by action groups from western France along with local politicians and environmentalists. Police estimated 2,000 people attended. TotalFina, which chartered the Erika, was targeted by protesters in two separate incidents before the march. On the day of the protest, activists dumped sand and oil in front of what they believed was the home of TotalFina boss, Thierry Desmarest. According to police, they left the scene upon realizing that they had the wrong address.

01 Nov 2000

Tanker Not An Environmental Disaster Yet

Environmental disaster has been averted for now but France is taking no risks after a tanker carrying thousands of tons of toxic chemicals sank off the Normandy coast, Reuters reported President Jacques Chirac as saying. Visiting an emergency operations center in Cherbourg, northwestern France, Chirac said information was still being gathered on how best to recover the chemicals that officials said were already leaking from the Italian tanker Ievoli Sun, which sank in the English Channel on Tuesday. "It's escaping in bursts," Cherbourg maritime captain Jean-Francois Choquart said. "It has to be styrene that has escaped from a forward storage tank…

01 Mar 2001

Kristal Loss Raises Flags

Similarities were emerging between this week's loss of the tanker Kristal off Spain and a number of other recent tanker disasters, leading to warnings of an industry-wide crisis. The products tanker Kristal broke in two in heavy seas northeast of Coruna, Spain, on Tuesday with the loss of four lives and seven crew still missing. The remaining 24 crew were taken safely to shore and the 28,000 ton cargo of molasses is not considered a pollution risk. Nicola Squassafichi, CEO of RINA, the Italian classification responsible for the Kristal's annual surveys, warned of an emerging pattern of damage to tankers. "Following the recent incidents…

15 Mar 2001

ABS, DNV, LR Take Action

Three leading bodies responsible for surveying ships and verifying them as seaworthy launched an initiative on Thursday aimed at dispelling growing industry concern about the thoroughness of safety checks. Classification societies Lloyd's Register (LR), the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and Det Norske Veritas (DNV) said they had laid down a 10-point action plan. "We've got to get away from this reputation that we... most definitely have of being too slow to react (to safety concerns)," said LR chief executive officer David Moorhouse. Classification societies' surveyors conduct detailed surveys of ships for corrosion and safety hazards every year. The leading 10 classification societies have long been governed by one industry body, IACS, of which they are all members.

09 Mar 2000

Safety Charter Targets Old Tankers, Flags Of Convenience

A backlash against older tankers and flags of convenience, triggered by the December sinking of the Erika off the coast of France, achieved a tangible first step last week with the signing of a Ship Safety Charter by oil majors and ship classification firms involved in the French petroleum shipping industry. The parties signing the three-page document, including TotalFina, Elf Aquitaine, BP Amoco France, Royal Dutch/Shell France, Esso France, ship classification firm Bureau Veritas and petroleum industries federation UFIP, agreed not to use single-hulled ships after 2008 and, effective immediately, to only use ships over 15 years old if they have passed recent intensive inspections.

20 Dec 1999

French Officials Demand Stricter Maritime Regulations

French Environment Ministry Officials have demanded tougher maritime laws as thick fuel oil from a tanker that split up one week ago edges closer to the country's Atlantic coastline. For the fourth day in a row, strong winds prevented navy vessels from pumping up scattered slicks of oil in the sea south of the Brittany coast. Officials said that maritime traffic laws must be strengthened. "One cannot approve of a system that uses old tubs, underpaid sailors and minimizes controls," one official was quoted as saying. The 25-year-old tanker Erika, carrying 25,000 tons of fuel oil, broke in two last Sunday in heavy seas. The bow and stern both sank on Monday, and experts estimate that between 8,000 and 15,000 tons of oil have escaped from the ship's various holds.

14 Dec 1999

Officials Fear Environmental Repercussion From Sunken Tanker

A giant oil slick from the sunken tanker Erika drifted and widened off the northwestern French coast on Dec. 14, and officials worry that changing winds could push it towards land. A spokesman for maritime authorities said the slick from the broken up tanker Erika, estimated at 9,000 to 10,000 tons of viscous fuel oil, was extending as it absorbed seawater. Officials insisted that ecological disaster cannot be ruled out on the Brittany coast, where the Amoco Cadiz spilled over one million barrels of oil in 1978. The oil slick was some 25 nautical miles south off the tourist island of Belle-Ile, itself about 16 nautical miles south of Brittany's Finistere Peninsula, and drifting eastwards at .6 mph.

11 Jan 2000

Two Salvage Firms Present Plan To Pump Oil From Tanker Wreck

Two Salvage firms - France's Les Abeilles International and Smit Internationale of the Netherlands - have reportedly told French authorities they could start recovering oil from the wreck of the sunken tanker Erika, which went down on Dec. 12 off the Brittany coast, within a matter of days. An estimated 20,000 tons of heavy fuel remain within the tanks of the ship, which broke in two before sinking. The two firms are ready to use a robot system developed by Norwegian pump specialist Frank Mohn and said they see no need to wait for three or four months to begin the operation, as was previously suggested. They said they could begin operations within two weeks if they got the go-ahead from French authorities and Totalfina…