The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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BEYOND THE HORIZON CONTINUED��� buoy, still at slow speed. Taken to a hospital were 26 people and two stayed there for some time. The Washington State ferry Walla Walla went out of service abruptly during routine maintenance in the engine room. Workers were cleaning a drive motor commutator when something went terribly wrong. The resulting temperatures of over 2600��F melted brass and steel components of the motor. A spare motor may be installable but otherwise the 1972-built ferry will have to wait for General Electric to build a new motor and that might take two years. Near Pingshan village in Anhua county in China, a river vessel capsized, tossing four trucks and 11 people into the stream. Three persons were rescued and the vessel���s owner and ���driver��� were detained by local police. Perhaps presaging a long-overdue crackdown on corruption, six local officials were removed from their posts. On Lake Tanganyika a ferry sank between Tanzania and Burundi due to violent winds with about 90 on board. Eight died and around 20 were missing. At New Orleans, the lower Chalmette-Algiers ferry turned around in mid-stream and returned after passengers got sick. A ���chemical cloud��� drifting over the Mississippi River had caused throat and eye irritation. The cloud was probably sulphur dioxide released by a local plant during maintenance. LEGAL MATTERS A ship���s agent was asked to supply tidal information for an arriving ship. He scanned the wrong tide table (a corner of a page was folded over, hiding the year). The ship had excessive draft upon arrival and could only unload a few hours each day and had to shift anchorage three times in four days. The agent settled with the owner for the additional costs to the tune of $120,000. ENERGY Low speeds to save fuel have created a continuing struggle between the container shipping lines and shippers. Speeds below 20 knots save money for the lines but increase customers��� costs. However, the lower speeds also increase schedule reliability. In any case, express service is unlikely to return any time soon. The International Energy Agency recently reported that the US will overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia by 2017 as the world���s biggest producer of liquids as US crude-oil output rose to the highest level since January 1994. The gains have been primarily in light, low-sulfur oil from Bakken and Eagle Ford shale formations in North Dakota and southern Texas. North Dakota output jumped 57 percent last year. An American company will build will two 3100-teu container ships powered by LNG and put the duo into service to Puerto Rico. The company is also converting existing container ships in its Alaskan service to LNG while they are sailing. NATURE Three of Denmark���s formerly state-owned icebreakers, Thorbjo��rn, Danbj��orn, and Isbjo��rn, have seen so little use in the last 16 years that they are for sale. Corals threatened by approaching toxic algae call for help by releasing specific chemicals and its inch-long resident gobie fish respond by immediately attacking the algae. As one report explained it, ���The symbiotic relationship between fish and the coral on which they live is the first known example of one species chemically signalling a consumer species to remove competitors.��� Unusually thick sea ice on Laizhou Bay in east China���s Shandong Province, the worst the area has experienced in three years, stranded 1000 coastal ships, and conditions are expected to grow worse. 36 Professional Skipper March/April 2013 Aquafarmers in Laizhou Bay were concerned that the thicker ice could lead to heavy losses because they are unable to penetrate the ice to provide adequate ventilation for sea cucumbers and other aquatic organisms. In British Columbia, a member of the Gitga���at First Nation has voiced concerns about dish-washing detergent and other fluids leaking from the sunken ferry Queen of the North imperilling the clams he harvests. METAL-BASHING Too much tonnage and a weak rupee has dampened the enthusiasm of India���s ship-scrappers for new deals. The world���s first seafaring hybrid ferry was launched on the River Clyde recently, the first commercial vessel built there in five years. The ro-ro/pax will utilise a hybrid system of diesel engines and lithium ion batteries and it and a sister ferry will operate in Scottish waters. Bulbous bows reduce fuel requirements by moving the bow wave forward into space not yet occupied by the hull. (That is not the correct explanation but hopefully the reader gets the general idea.) Maersk has found it can reduce fuel bills up to two percent by replacing the bulb with a new bow design. Bulbous bows are most effective when used in vessels when the waterline length is longer than about 15 metres and the vessel operates most of the time at or near its maximum speed. NASTIES AND TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVES A revised South Korean law calls for new ocean-going construction to have built-in citadels where crews can retreat from boarding pirates. Nigeria, Somalia, and the Far East were, pirate-wise, quiet last month, and the major piracy effort was off the coast of Vietnam, where the small Malaysian chemical tanker Zafirah was hi-jacked by up to 11 knife and pistol-wielding pirates. It was later recaptured by Vietnamese marine police with its name changed to MD Feahorse (seahorse?), and a fishing vessel came across its crew of nine, all unhurt, in a liferaft. A Nigerian pirate described the business of ship hijacking as ���highly lucrative��� and said that ���Nigeria today had some 1250 trained pirates and 3000 high-calibre military weapons���. There can be no successful vessel hijacking in West Africa, or Africa as a whole, without inputs from Nigerian oil mafias, including top government functionaries.��� Helping, is that Nigeria���s security forces suffer from under-funding, a lack of hardware, vessels and maintenance, and problems with discipline and corruption. Add to them, grudge attacks that stem from personal conflict, envy, disputes over payments and contracts and turf wars between gangs of bunkering thieves. ODD BITS At Lyttelton, New Zealand, a ferry skipper didn���t hesitate when a line fouled the port propeller. He got the boat back to a pier on one engine and then he stripped to his skivvies and over the side he went, pocket knife in hand and mask on face. 66 waiting Christmas-time passengers applauded as the successful skipper re-donned his uniform over wet undies and invited them aboard. HEAD-SHAKER The French skipper of the racing yacht Safran was intent on breaking his own record for sailing around the UK and Ireland but he sailed the wrong way in a traffic-separation lane in the English Channel and forced ships to take action to avoid him. He told the French Coastguard he was trying to set a record and would not alter course. A British court later fined him ��9381 plus costs of ��4125.