When supertankers collide

[ontherocks83]

pfffff, no worries, that'll buff out.

[rgleason]

El Pinguino, good point about GPS location setup. That answers the first question I had about apparent separation.

[daletournier]

This is just a small snapshot of crossing Singapore straits, keep in mind some of these vessels are moving at 12+ knots.

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[CSY Man]

Not much to add, but in my younger days I was a helmsman on those Super Tankers: ULCC.
Long delay turning the wheel over and even longer trying to stop by going full reverse.
All you get for going reverse is a slight vibration, if you are lucky
A fully loaded tanker takes a mile or two to stop if lucky.
An empty tanker less, but floating high in the water and the propeller half airborne, it could be longer.
We never had those crash-stop problems however, lots of tugs attached, slow speed operations and Proffesional harbor Pilots.
Not sure what happened above but I have my theories...(rolling eyes now)

[rgleason]

Good testing ground for ais alerts and controls? Or would it just overwhelm the display. The situations look close enough so that the position of the GPS should be accounted for, and the locations of the GPS had best be accurate.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Good testing ground for ais alerts and controls? Or would it just overwhelm the display. The situations look close enough so that the position of the GPS should be accounted for, and the locations of the GPS had best be accurate.

That's my point, in my experience it overwhelms ais, going with the traffic isnt as bad, you can use your filters more successfully ( still not great) but crossing the straight is totally different, these ships are moving fast.

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[Neptune's Gear]

I recall crossing from the Indonesian side towards Singapore, grey day, rain and visibility to less than a mile. I really would not have wanted to be without the Ais, AND the radar, like all safe navigation practice, you should never rely on a singe source of data.

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[El Pinguino]

I'm sure they would have been using ECDIS which would have had the radar overlaid on top of the AIS info on top of the electronic chart or V versa..... they may even have been looking out the windows.

Rule #1 do not pass close ahead of ULCCs....

Rule #2 refer Rule #1

It would be interesting to read the VHF transcript.

[Lake-Effect]

Never mind self-driving cars... I'd like to see ship computers taking in all the available data (position, speed, direction, wind, current, ship lengths) to provide advance warning and coordination to the bridges.

[El Pinguino]

From here... https://www.sailors-club.net/compone...ngapore-strait

'The local authorities started investigation for the root cause of the accident. According to preliminary information, responsible for the collision was the duty officer of very large crude carrier Dream, who was neglecting the ColReg rules, as container ship MSC Alexandra was proceeding from the right board and have to be released by the tanker to enter in the separation scheme. On other side, the lack of communication and misunderstanding from the both duty officers was in the root cause of the collision.'

[Ungvar]

What I observed watching the replay, was the Alexandria making a mild alteration to Starboard. If that wasn't readily apparent to the Dream II (forgive me if I got the names wrong), then the Dream II would have likely plotted the Alexandria's course to pass astern. Am I the only one that sees that? Maybe I need less cocktails.

[Ungvar]

Here is what I think happened. The Captain was not on the bridge, or at least not actively navigating either ship. The Alexandria was continuing on her planned route with her mild alteration to starboard, in the belief the Dream 2 would yield, being on the Port Side.

The watch officer on Dream II plotted the Alexandrias course and determined that no risk of collision existed but failed to track her actual progress.

You guys and your conspiracy's about AIS. The navigators just weren't paying enough attention.