BOW WAVE 417

Bow Wave Issue 417--Marine Mutuals Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

Bow Wave homepage
Previous issue (416) / Current issue / Next issue (418)

Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2007 WavyLine.com	Issue No 417 19 Nov 07
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
Subscribe	Unsubscribe

In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. P&I Loss Log
3. Learning from "Annabella"
4. UK Club's Increase Announcement
5. Chinese Yachting
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Poem of the Week

Loss and Gain

When I compare
What I have lost with what I have gained,
What I have missed with what attained,
Little room do I find for pride.

I am aware
How many days have been idly spent;
How like an arrow the good intent
Has fallen short or been turned aside.

But who shall dare
To measure loss and gain in this wise?
Defeat may be victory in disguise;
The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

New Readers this week include:-

Robert Cloos
Stuart Dench and Mike Lax of Solicitors Lax & Co
Jack Post of Rotterdam
Deborah Yu of Bilbroughs
Charles Russel

Readers Write

Mark Warner writes:

May I draw your Readers' attention to the new Lloyd's List ePaper, which is a fully featured digital edition available to subscribers and new readers on a ‘pay as you go’ basis.

The ePaper replicates the newspaper pages, allowing subscribers to get the same experience as readers of the hard-copy edition with the ability to see articles,images and advertisements as they appear in print.

But it also offers additional functionality, including the ability to email and print stories and to save them to a clippings folder, enabling readers to compile their own limited archive of Lloyd’s List content. Subscribers can also choose to print some or all of the edition.

A secure, online credit card payment facility has been developed to allow ePaper package buyers to receive immediate access.

http://epaper.lloydslist.com

Note from the Editor

A longer than usual edition this week. Hope there is something of interest for all.

Enjoy!

2. P&I Loss Log

The the latest edition of the admirable newsletter by AJ Gallagher called P&I Confidential again carries a list af recent claims. The newsletter sets out the P&I increases stall for the Clubs in the run up to the 20FEB renewal. In item 4 below we reproduce also the editor's note on the UK Club's announcement which is possibly the most complex in the history of such documents

2007-26 4 September 2007--Container vessel MV "Maersk Diadema" ran aground entering port of Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, after deciding to enter without the benefit of a harbour pilot. Watch the aftermath of the incident on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-1O3JQfyrQ Club: Gard

2007-27 15 September 2007--MCCL managed ro-ro MV "Sea Angel" carrying 600 cars suffered engine room fire near Novorosoiysk. Vessel suffered blackout and drifted. Fire extinguished and vessel towed back to port. Club: West of England.

2007-28 18 September 2007-- MV "Hanjin Gothenburg" collided with Sun Tong Shipping owned MV "Chang Tong" in the Bohai Sea off Shandong Province. The latter vessel holed and flooded, but little damage to former. Vessels kept locked together to minimise water ingress. Club: Hanjin-Swedish; Chang Tong-unknown.

2007-29 23 September 2007--Indian offshore supply vessel "Seamec II" suffered explosion when under repair in Curacao. Five welders killed. Club: unknown.

2007-30 23 September 2007--Danielle Shipmanagement cruise ship "Dream" (ex Song of Norway, Norway etc) developed list in harbour in Rhodes. 900 passengers evacuated. Arrest warrants issued in connection with the incident, suggesting wilful attempt to cause shipwreck. Club: American.

2007-31 23 September 2007--Vroon Offshore Services standby vessel "Viking Islay" involved in anchor handling accident in BP Amethyst gas field in the North Sea. 3 crewmen killed. Club: North of England.

2007-32 3 October 2007--JPS Shipping Corp cargo vessel MV "Mia" carrying cement capsized and sank near Cagayancillo Islands in the Philippines. 4 crew rescued by passing fishing vessel, but 14 missing presumed consumed by sharks. Club: Unknown.

2007-33 3 October 2007--Triumph Sea cargo vessel MV "Aladdin Dream" with crew of 27 aboard had engine failure and became trapped in Typhoon Krosa off Wenling, Zheijang Province. After 80 hours, vessel eventually brought to port. Club: Japan.

2007-34 17 October 2007--Greek cargo vessel MV "Diamond 1" carrying coal collided with MV "Dubai Guardian" outside port of Thessaloniki. Captain of Diamond 1 went down with vessel. Club: Dubai-North of England; Diamond-unknown.

2007-35 24 October 2007--Drilling Rig "Usumacinta" collided with Pemex platform "Kab 101" over Sea Pony well in Campeche Sound, Gulf of Mexico during heavy weather. 21 fatalities but 60 crew rescued. No significant oil spill but gas leak took several days to control. Club: N/A.

3. Learning from "Annabella"

A one-day conference in London Docklands
Tuesday 22 January 2008

Is the shortsea container shipping industry capable of implementing safe working practices given the operational complexities and commercial pressures it faces today?

On 22 January at a venue in London Docklands, a one-day conference will be staged, bringing together a wide variety of people, all having an interest one way or another in the business of shortsea shipping. Taking as its starting point a report by the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) into an incident on board the 868TEU UK-flag container vessel "Annabella" in February 2007, the conference will address the question "Is the shortsea container shipping industry capable of implementing safe working practices given the operational complexities and commercial pressures it faces today?".

On a voyage from Rotterdam and Antwerp to Helsinki, a stack of seven 30ft containers stowed in Annabella’s no 3 hold collapsed. Fortunately little damage was done and no one suffered injuries but the outcome could have been catastrophic given that the top
three containers in the stack were carrying Butylene Gas (IMDG Class 2.1, UN 1012). Furthermore, Annabella had been built to an open-hatch design; no 3 hold was an open hold.

The subsequent report by the MAIB was thorough,
various specific failings were identified and
recommendations were directed to those involved
including the ship manager and the charterer. However, the terminal operators and the software suppliers were also found wanting in certain areas.

It should be noted here that "Annabella" was a
modern ship built by one of Germany’s leading
shipbuilders and managed by a highly professional ship management company. That such an accident
could happen to this ship, the conference organisers suggest, indicates that some aspects of shortsea container shipping operations are fundamentally
flawed and need examination, especially with regard to the future development of intra-European
intermodal container equipment.

In its report, the MAIB noted:

"Unlike in other sectors of the international shipping industry, there is currently no dedicated trade
organisation which routinely provides guidance on best practice for the container industry. Working practices relating to the planning, loading, transportation and discharge of containers are largely unregulated and have been understandably focussed on the need to maximise efficiency and speed of operation. While key industry players will attest that safety is of paramount concern, evidence obtained during this and other MAIB
investigations into container shipping accidents suggests that in reality, the safety of ships, crews and the environment is being compromised by the overriding desire to maintain established schedules or optimise port turn round times."
It continued:
"Many container ship and port operators have developed in-house working practices that effectively combine efficiency with safety. To avoid accidents in the future, there is a compelling need for the key industry players to work together and agree on what constitutes accepted safe working practices and incorporate these into an industry code. The code would serve as a benchmark for ship operators, charterers and port operators providing them with guidance on the minimum standards expected of companies who might wish to operate in this sector."

The MAIB recommended to the International Chamber of Shipping that it should work with the industry to develop and then promote adherence to a best practice safety code. This is clearly a laudable initiative but how does one define ‘the industry’?

The European shortsea/feeder industry is extremely fragmented and communication between the various parties is often weak or even non-existent. Any attempt to introduce a best practice safety code for shortsea container shipping should involve broad-based consultation before drawing up safety codes that may eventually be incorporated into legislation.

Typically, a shortsea container vessel may be owned by a KG company or a small private owner with day-to-day management entrusted to a professional ship management company. She may then be chartered to a feeder operator that transports containers quay to quay on behalf of third parties. These would include ocean carriers; leasing companies; shippers, especially chemical manufacturers; European door-to-door intermodal operators, including NVOs; and even road transport operators.

While the ocean carriers will be presenting mostly 20ft and 40ft ISO containers for carriage, perhaps with the occasional 8ft wide 45ft too; the rest of the cargo will be very much non-ISO. There will be 45ft ‘palletwide’ (2.5m wide) containers, now the mainstay of the
intra-European container trades; there will be 45ft reefers, some of which are actually longer than 45ft; and 20ft and 30ft dry bulk and tank containers, many also 2.5m wide. Few of these will meet the ISO
standard rating for allowable stack weights of 213.36 tonnes and to make things even more confusing, the 45ft containers will have different stacking capabilities depending on whether the load is being supported on the 40ft or 45ft posts. Truly a ship planner’s
nightmare. As for the ship’s crew, the only way
they can check a container’s stacking capability is to look at the CSC plate, hardly a realistic
proposition in most loading environments.

It follows that those who should be involved in any consultation relating to a best practice safety code should include not only owners, charterers/operators and ports but also freight forwarders/nvos, container manufacturers and lessors, shipbuilders and their naval architects, computer software specialists and even road hauliers, many of whom are now ordering containers for intra-European operations.

To facilitate this dialogue, this one-day seminar will invite those involved in the shortsea container shipping industry to explain how they see their
sector today and how they see it developing in the future. We will be bringing together into one room companies that rarely if ever have the opportunity to exchange views with each other.

David Cheslin on tel: +44 20 7480 0601
e-mail:pr.co.uk
or
Anna Skordai on tel: +44 20 7480 0610
e-mail:pr.co.uk

4. UK Club's Increase Announcement

As trailed in item 2 above here is the gloss on this announcement, which is logical, informative and yet, we imagine, not entirely understandable by anyone who does not entirely know the background to pooling:-

A very useful insight in to the development of pooling losses for 2006-7 is given by the UK Club in comments in support of their general increase announcement.

Firstly, the increase itself, which is somewhat more complex than usual. The increase applied to members is split into three parts, but has been estimated by the Club as equating to approximately 17.5% across the board, although individual members will experience different outcomes.

The Club will levy;

a)a 10% general increase on rating levels;
b)any increased cost in the International Group
reinsurance programme;
c)a mandatory (non-negotiable) 12% additional pool surcharge. This surcharge will be applied to the member’s 2007 policy year premium net of fixed
reinsurance costs. It will not be subject to
adjustments for record or changes in risk.

A 5% increase will be applied to charterers and fixed premium risks.

Release calls are also to be increased from the long standing 5%. For 2008-09 they will be set at 25%; the 2007-08 release call has been increased to 25%; the 2006-07 one to 15% whilst the 2005-06 release call remains at 5%.

In their discussion of claims costs, the Club mention 2006-07 pooling loss projections, which total $560 million. We understand that this equates to some $400 million for the lower pool, approximately $110 million for the Hydra backed upper pool, leaving a further $50 million, which must relate to Hydra’s 25% line on the first excess reinsurance layer.

This cost is almost double the average cost of pooling over the last 10 years. When one adds in the individual Club’s retentions into the equation, the 30 claims which comprise the 2006-07 pool may end up costing $750 million --or $25 million each on average. That is escalating large claims costs for you.

Contact:-

Bernard_Cook@ajg.com

5. Chinese Yachting

Matt Flynn writes from Wuhan, Central China on the nascent yachting industry in Connected, the newsletter of inland supply chain firm City Connect:

Yachts for the masses

With China’s emerging middle class status symbol hungry we were intrigued by a presentation from Bradford Douglas Bean, chairman of Megayacht Group LLC, who has launched Wuhan Megayacht Manufacturing Ltd. The fifteen-year timeline sees the company creating more than 2000 jobs and investing some RMB 3bn in yachts ranging in sizes from 18m to 68m. "China is a country that boasts a coast line of over 17,000 km, the fourth largest river in the world and over 89,000 lakes.Match this with an ever growing economy and a rising number of wealthy business owners and it should come as no surprise that China is in the midst of developing a very active yachting industry," Mr Bean said.

http://www.cityconnect.com.cn/connected/07/connected07-04.html

6. And Finally...

Thanks to Paul Dixon's Joke of the Day for these. Readers will know we have a weakness for such things:-

These are allegedly extracts of 5th and 6th graders' answers given on history tests and in Sunday school quizzes. They were collected over aperiod of three years by two teachers.

Ancient Egypt was old. It was inhabited by gypsies and mummies who all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert.

The climate of the Sarah is such that all the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.

Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandos. He died before he ever reached
Canada but the commandos made it.

Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines. He was a actual hysterical figure as well as being in the bible. It sounds like he was sort of busy too.

The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a young female moth.

Socrates was a famous old Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. He later died from an overdose of wedlock which is apparently poisonous. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.

In the first Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled biscuits, and threw the java. The games were messier then than they show on TV now.

Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out: "Same to you, Brutus."

Joan of Arc was burnt to a steak and was canonized by Bernard Shaw for reasons I don't really understand. The English and French still have problems.

Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen," As a queen she was a success. When she exposed herself before her troops they all shouted "hurrah!" and
that was the end of the fighting for a long while.

It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented removable type and the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood.

Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes and started smoking.

Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100 foot clipper which was very dangerous to all his men.

The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespeare. He was born in the year 1564, supposedly on his birthday. He never made such money and is famous only because of his plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and hysterectomies, all in Islamic pentameter.

Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Since then no one ever found it.

Delegates from the original 13 states formed the
Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin,
and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the
Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered
electricity by rubbing two cats backward and also declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand." He was a naturalist for sure. Franklin
died in 1790 and is still dead.

Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up
in his attic. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large.

Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf that he wrote loud music and became the father of rock and roll. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.

The nineteenth century was a time of a great many thoughts and inventions. People stopped reproducing by hand and started reproducing by machine. The
invention of the steamboat caused a network of
rivers to spring up.

Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbits but I don't know why.

Charles Darwin was a naturalist. He wrote the Organ of the Species. It was very long people got upset about it and had trials to see if it was really true. He sort of said God's days were not just 24 hours but without watches who knew anyhow? I don't get it.

Madman Curie discovered radio. She was the first woman to do what she did. Other women have become scientists since her but they didn't get to find
radios because they were already taken.

Karl Marx was one of the Marx Brothers. The other three were in the movies. Karl made speeches and started revolutions. Someone in the family had to have a job, I guess.

BOW WAVE is published each week to over 14 800 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

Thanks for reading BOW WAVE