Miko Joins the New Maritime Passive Safety Association

June 22, 2011 - PRLog -- It has joined the fledgling organisation to support its aim of encouraging the shipping industry to build ships that include features that will enable them to cope better in an environmental crisis. Miko Marine has been welcomed into the Association as it has two product-lines that can be carried as insurance against disaster and which clearly illustrate the MPSA’s objectives.

The ShipArrestor is an advanced sea anchor that has demonstrated an ability to turn a supertanker into the wind and halve the speed of its drift in the event of engine failure. The ShipArrestor project is also designed as a helicopter-delivered salvage tool where the anchor creates more time for a ship to be put on-tow before grounding with disastrous consequences for the environment and those onboard.

Following demonstrations of the ShipArrestor’s effectiveness its implementation is now being discussed by the maritime authorities in Norway, United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden. The current trend of government financial cutbacks and the predicted loss of the UK’s emergency towing vessels (ETVs) has given the system  additional emphasis as a high value salvage tool capable of creating more time for the ship to be reached by scarcer and less widely available towing vessels.  Yet even when a rescue tug is available the sea anchor is important as it can be extremely difficult for salvors to get a tow line to a vessel drifting in extreme conditions. If the ship has been abandoned it becomes impossible and can only be achieved by putting a salvage crew on board by helicopter at tremendous risk to themselves.

The sea anchor can, however, be installed in a small container on the foredeck of any ship from where it can be launched automatically if the need arises. It is also being recommended for inclusion as part of the Emergency Towing System (ETS), which is compulsory for tankers and other vessels above 30.000 DWT.  A 30-metre diameter sea-anchor made from modern high-strength materials applies a 700-square metre braking force that research and full-scale testing have demonstrated can turn the ship’s bow into the wind and reduce its drift speeds by more than 60 per cent.  This is particularly important as a ship without power will always drift beam-on to the weather which can create extreme conditions on board. By keeping the bow up into the wind rolling is reduced significantly and this minimises the risk of deck cargoes or container stacks being lost overboard.  When, in 2008, a jack-up drilling rig was lost overboard from the heavy lift vessel Titan-1 under these conditions it resulted in a $280 million insurance claim that would have been avoided if a ShipArrestor had been used.

A sea anchor would also have substantially reduced the dangers faced by the 2,000 passengers and crew of the MSC Opera when its engines failed in the Baltic Sea on the 14th May and where it drifted helplessly for most of the day.  The slab-sides of the luxury cruise ship create a windage estimated at around 7,000 square metres which is more than twice the sail area of the record breaking sailing clipper the Cutty Sark.  Experts consequently believe that a stronger wind would have quickly blown a ship of this type ashore with potentially fatal consequences for those aboard.  Although the MSC Opera was spared by the calm and windless weather it was, nevertheless, barely six miles (10 km) from the rocky coast of Gotland before it was rescued by a tug.  
Explaining the thinking behind the ShipArrestor and its relevance to the MPSA, Nicolai Michelsen, Miko managing director said; “It is a product that no sensible ship operator would ever want to use.  It would be ideal if it could spend its life on the ship and only be opened for inspection. It is the same with equipment such as lifeboats, liferafts and EPIRBS but if a vessel has been built with a ShipArrestor it might be possible to overcome a crisis before having to resort to life saving equipment. The ShipArrestor is a simple and comparatively inexpensive piece of equipment yet it could save the ship operator and its insurers vast sums of money if one is available when it is needed. More importantly, it could also save coastal communities from the economic and environmental disaster that a spill can cause.”

Mr Michelsen added that the ShipArrestor can also be used as a temporary installation aboard high risk ships. Fleet operators can assign a unit to a ship that is about to carry a hazardous or difficult cargo and present its availability as an argument for a reduction in insurance premiums.  P&I Clubs can similarly specify its carriage as a means of reducing their risk.

The Maritime Passive Safety Association is now working to encourage the construction of ships with features that will minimise their ecological impact by simplifying their recovery or salvage if things go wrong.  The Fast Oil Recovery System from JLMD of France is a typical example as it is a product that enables the ship’s oil, whether cargo or bunkers, to be quickly and cleanly recovered if it is grounded. The Association is now keen to attract other manufacturers with products that can be added to the available inventory of passive safety technology.  

A range of flexible temporary patches is a second product-line from Miko that pursues the same MPSA safety objective but without being part of the ship’s structure. Miko Plasters , whether magnetic or riveted, can be used to quickly seal an oil leak or repair hull damage. Tanker Packs of magnetic patches may be carried on-board a ship for instant emergency use or, as in the case of Norway, carried by all coastguard vessels. Used throughout the French navy and in numerous applications offshore, magnetic patches are now in widespread use and are making an important contribution to marine safety and pollution control. The instances where they have prevented the loss of a vessel are now offered as testimony to this and include preventing the sinking of a nuclear fuel carrier off Norway earlier this year and keeping damaged fishing boats afloat in environmentally sensitive Arctic waters.

Miko Marine holds the patent for its flexible patches and for the ShipArrestor which has been developed with help from an EU investment grant and a consortium of eight European organisations. This includes companies from Norway, France, Germany, Netherlands and Austria as well as the Norwegian Institute of Technology and the UK’s Ship Stability Research Centre.
-ENDS-

Commercial enquiries contact:
Nicolai Michelsen, general manager
Miko Marine AS  
Ruseløkkveien 26  PO Box 1534 -Vika  
N - 0117 Oslo, Norway
Tel  + 47 46 90 50 00  Fax + 47 22 83 65 15  Mob + 47 911 70 452
email: info@miko.no     website:  www.miko.no