P&O Ferries has been spinning several plates recently, including newbuilding, life extension and energy efficient programmes. Near the top of the list is its effort to master 0.1 per cent sulphur requirements
on with its Pride of Bruges and Pride of York ferries. In 2011, even though this pair had reached 25 years old, P&O Ferries decided to consider a five-year life extension and, following five-year renewal surveys, its class society, Lloyd’s Register, approved this plan. To update them, both ships went into drydock last year for an upgrade and, in addition, Pride of York had another refit earlier this year. Work involved hull blasting and recoating with antifouling, which came from International Paint, fitting new propeller blades and a new monitoring system for the main engines and generators, which analyses their performance and raises an alarm if it detects anything abnormal. “It was a big job,” Mr Garner said. Both ships also had their power management systems replaced, which involved installing new cables to main engines and generators and new sensors, for example of exhaust temperatures and oil pressures. As the ships get older, “it reduces the risk of any obsolete spare parts and any issues regarding reliability,” he said. Unlike Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France, the company decided that it made more sense to extend the life of Pride of Bruges and Pride of York rather than replace them with newbuildings, due to their suitability for the route. The work “takes care of immediate requirements, so we have no immediate
www.passengership.info
requirements for vessel renewals,” Mr Garner said; in fact, newbuildings will probably not be added to the fleet until either 2018 or 2020, based on the fleet renewal programme. A large operational focus for P&O Ferries is safety management on board its ferries. The operator has used the Bridge Resource Management (BRM) course originally launched by the Swedish Club in 1993, which has since been developed into a Maritime Resource Management (MRM) course and is now run by the Swedish Club Academy, set up in 2010. It has put over 300 of its personnel through the training,
which incorporates many of the requirements of the Human Element, Leadership and Management (HELM) requirements of the Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) for seafarers. Mr Garner stressed that a very important point was that marine engineers and the shore- based fleet department team were also included in the training, alongside bridge personnel. One of the major issues concerning P&O Ferries at the moment is the reduction in sulphur limits under Marpol Annex VI and the revised EU Directive on Sulphur in Marine Fuel
Passenger Ship Technology I 2nd Quarter 2013 I 31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88