NEWS


Rules IACS sets new boxship


hull rules International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) rules have been updated following the conclusion of investigations into the Napoli and MOL Comfort casualties. Formal adoption of the latest rule, UR S11A which


pertains to container ships only, is planned for 31 March with the rules entering into force on 1 July 2016. Peter Tompson, global head of hull structures at


Lloyd’s Register and the chair of IACS’ Hull Panel, told The Naval Architect: “The Expert Group on Container Ships concluded that there was a need to expand the scope of the current unified requirements with the aim of achieving an acceptable level of consistency in hull girder strength under specific loading conditions.” According to IACS the damage report and


subsequent explanations from ClassNK identified that bottom shell plate buckling was “the area of initial failure”, and that this was also the conclusion reached by the initial government led report into the Comfort loss. Te new rule effectively sets new net thickness


rules for hull girders and shell plating, where in the past some class societies used gross thickness as their standard. Tis new element to the rules will set a new minimum standard that must be adopted by all class societies into their rules, explained Tompson. Following the loss of Napoli in 2008 and the


Maritime Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) investigations into the casualty the MAIB recommended that hull girder strength and buckling checks are conducted on all post-Panamax container ships, in addition an evaluation of the original UR S11 rule governing design and wave bending moments for vessels with low block coefficients was proposed and that class use common methods to comply with these requirements. A project team was established, PT56, to look into these proposals. However, an Expert Group reporting directly to the


IACS council was formed under the chairmanship of DNV GL’s Holger Jefferies, VP Research and Rules Holger Jeffries in November 2013 to look at the implications of the MOL Comfort loss following the break up and subsequent sinking of that vessel in June 2013 and the conclusions of this Expert Group were delayed until November last year, aſter the publication of a report into the Comfort loss by ClassNK. A workshop to debate the implications of the


ClassNK report then took place in October and new minimum standards for container ships were agreed


8 The Naval Architect January 2015


between the IACS members and that rule, UR S11A, pertains solely to container ships. Current IACS chairman and executive VP at


Bureau Veritas Philippe Donche-Gay says: “I am very confident that the new rules will prevent another Comfort type of accident,” he added “Te accumulation of causes that combined to produce a statistically unique situation in which the Comfort took place.” A number of major container shipping lines have


now set up equipment to monitor their own vessels in a variety of different situations over a significant period in order to look at possible whipping and springing issues that could arise on the large container ships. IACS is also looking to see if there can be a


common approach with its members to whipping and springing in ships.


Newbuilding Shell enters LNG bunker


market Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell is to build an LNG bunker vessel, which will supply the gas to vessels at Rotterdam’s GATE (Gas Access to Europe) terminal, and will be sited at the new break bulk terminal at the Dutch port. Te 120m long ship will be able to load bunkers


at the terminal or at other places as the vessel will be capable of navigating at sea. Shell says the vessel will be a “pioneering in design


and will be built by STX Offshore & Shipbuilding [in South Korea]. It will have a capacity to carry


Shell’s new LNG bunker vessel under construction at the STX yard in Korea will offer bunker services to LNG vessels at the Rotterdam break bulk terminal from 2016


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