Professional Skipper Magazine from VIP Publications

#87 May/Jun 2012 with NZ Aquaculture Magazine

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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location. In 1998, Canada purchased four mothballed diesel-electric submarines from Britain for $890m. The second-hand subs have been trouble-prone ever since. Estimates put repairs at close to the same figure. A South Korean firm will build three submarines for Indonesia. The 1400 tonne diesel-powered vessels will have eight torpedo tubes capable of emitting torpedoes, mines or guided missiles, and has 40 crew. Deliveries will be in the first half of 2018. The Maverick air-to-ground missile that saw combat in the Vietnam war, the Yom Kippur war and other conflicts, but has been out of production for more than two decades, is back in production in a laser-guided version. It is effective against frigate-size ships, small moving boats, tanks, fortified personnel and fast-moving manoeuvring vehicles in excess of 60 knots. WHITE FLEETS A cruise vessel with a few sick passengers is usually allowed to enter a port but, based on radioed advice from a United Kingdom- based microbiologist, authorities at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands denied landing rights to the Star Princess because the remote islands were unprepared to handle an outbreak of norovirus. About two percent of those on board were sick. Venice wants no more cruise liners. They bring air and water pollution and an additional two million more tourists a year into a city already under constant siege. A generator-room fire crippled the Costa Allegra while she was more than 200 miles off Seychelles. First to arrive on-scene was the French purse-seine tuna catcher Trevignon, which took the cruise ship in tow. Two tugs arrived soon after but the French fishing vessel, possibly with thoughts of salvage, refused to transfer the tow. It was later revealed that the Costa Allegra has a history of fire violations so an appropriate award might be €1 million? The Queen Mary 2 had two power outages while voyaging from Port Louis to Fremantle. The first lasted for 25 minutes. The second, in rough weather, lasted about 10 minutes. Passengers were inconvenienced only momentarily by the loss of lights and television but the engines took more than eight minutes to resume propelling the vessel. "Routine maintenance" was blamed for both outages. A crewmember jumped overboard from the Magic while the ship was about 100 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas in rough weather and at night. He was wearing a life vest with a strobe light attached so the Magic's rescue boat was able to pick him up within 45 minutes. THOSE THAT GO BACK AND FORTH The ferry Sharden was buffeted by a violent northeast snowstorm shortly after departing Civatavecchia, Rome. She hit a breakwater, tearing a 25m gash above the waterline but none of the 262 passengers were hurt. A middle-aged Asian jumped off the Coastal Celebration. between Active Pass and Tsawwassen in British Columbia. An extensive five-hour search failed to find him. In California, a black Mercedes with a stuck accelerator pedal pushed a minvan carrying Taiwanese vacationers into the water off the Balboa Island Ferry. It floated just long enough for the family of four to be rescued. Rescuers saved 238 of perhaps 300 people off Papua New Guinea when the ferry Rabaul Queen was travelling between Kimbe and Lae sent out a distress signal. The ferry sank east of Lae, the South Pacific country's second-largest city and some 16km from Finschhafen. On her delivery trip from a Finnish shipyard, the new cross- Channel ferry Spirit of France had to follow an icebreaker through 100 miles of ice. The vessel joined her slightly larger sister Spirit of Britain on the Dover-Calais run. At 47,000 and 49,000 gross tonnes, the two ferries are slightly bigger than the Titanic's 46,329 tonnes. Greek bureaucracy and problems faced by ferry companies could mean that a number of Aegean islands will be without a ferry service this summer. Fuel costs have gone up 44 percent since 2010 and are expected to increase, and passenger and vehicle traffic has been down. LEGAL MATTERS FBI divers from the USCGC Cypress and the Canadian frigate HMCS St. John's recovered more than 67kg of cocaine from a sunken semi-submersible scuttled by drug smugglers off Honduras in more than 900m of water. As it the freighter Katja arrived in Liverpool, United Kingdom from the St Lawrence Seaway with a cargo of rock salt, a pilot on a passing vessel noticed the Plimsoll Line and load lines were not visible and the vessel appeared suspiciously low in the water. The German owners pleaded guilty and were fined £28,015 plus costs of £5000 for overloading their vessel. When the bulker Laconia arrived at Astoria, Oregon, a Customs agent found open alcohol containers in the master's stateroom. The master's blood-alcohol level was well above the legal limit for a ship operator and he was taken into custody, sentenced to a $500 fine and one-year probation during which he must stay out of United States waters. The 1989-built Global Star was detained at Plymouth, UK after port state control inspectors found 19 deficiencies, four bad enough to constitute grounds for detention. The ship jumped detention and authorities in Europe, North America and Egypt were asked to International Paint A global company providing coatings and service to the marine industry within New Zealand and throughout the world VIP.PS43 For information on our range of Marine and Protective coatings, phone 0800 808 807 or visit www.international-marine.com International Paint 686 Rosebank Rd, Avondale, Auckland May/June 2012 Professional Skipper 35

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