NEWS ROUND-UP
Hansen changes hands W
ELL known ship design consultant Knud E Hansen, of Denmark, has been bought
by private company ML Group after a change in strategy by former owners Semcon. The new parent, also of Denmark, has paid SKr10 million to take over the consultancy and its 30 employees, which will work alongside ML Group’s offshore and marine design business, whose 100 staff have hitherto focused on ship automation systems. Where Knud E Hansen had formerly been
seen as a ‘third leg’ of Semcon’s development strategy after its acquisition as part of the purchase of Permatic by the Swedish group six years ago, Semcon chief executive Henrik Sund said the business no longer fitted into the group’s future investment plans, which are now focused on the telecoms and automotive sectors. ML Group is headed by chief executive Claes
Fog Bølge, who has worked on a number of prestigious automation systems projects in the cruise and passenger sector, including participation in the Queen Mary 2 build. Mr Bølge said: ‘Knud E Hansen’s sharp focus on innovative design will play an important role in our increased investment in new marine design technology.’ It is understood that ML Group is also on
the verge of purchasing another Danish ship automation company, as part of a strategy to grow its marine-related business. Knud E Hansen, which turned over SKr24.5 million in 2005, welcomed the sale. Managing director Finn Wollesen Petersen said the new parent would be able to offer services that the design consultant had previously had to outsource. Knud E Hansen is currently working on a new design of ro-ro ferry for Stena, as well as drill ship design, a new pipe layer and a windmill maintenance vessel.
Napoli cracks unsolved AS this issue of The Naval Architect went to press, the stricken containership MSC Napoli (4419 TEU) lay grounded east of Sidmouth, on the UK’s south coast, with The Maritime & Coastguard Agency estimating that it could take up to a year to recover. The 53,409gt ship, built in 1991 by Samsung
Heavy Industries, lost power on January 18, in force 8 gales after ingress of water to the engineroom, with the 26 crew airlifted to safety. Once grounded (intentionally), initial efforts focused on pumping out the ship’s fuel oil and, subsequently, unloading over 2000 containers still onboard. Speculation over the cause of cracking to
both sides of the ship’s hull initially focused on repairs carried out on the ship in March 2001 when, then trading as CMA CGM Normandie in Bureau Veritas class, the ship sustained a full-speed grounding in the Malacca Strait, after which 3000 tonnes of steel renewal work was required. However, MSC Napoli’s current class body
Det Norske Veritas pointed out that the latest cracks were some 100m distant from the repaired section.
4 MSC Napoli grounded east of Sidmouth.
Since taking over class in 2002, DNV said it
had conducted nine different surveys onboard the vessel, while an intermediate annual class inspection ran from late 2004 until early 2006 that included extended hull compartment tests, pressure tests and ultrasonic thickness inspections. A DNV inspector was aboard the vessel as recently as January 13, 2007, days before the ship left Antwerp. None of these tests or inspections threw up
any concerns, according to DNV. DNV’s own magazine Container Ship
Update recently recognised fatigue cracking as a problem of which operators of long, narrow containerships should take heed, due to the ship type’s inherent flexibility and vulnerability to torsional stresses in a quartering sea or with a swell on the bow. Fatigue life on some ships operating in
harsh conditions was found by the class body to be less than 10 years. For the record, DNV conceded that it had
concerns specific to containership structures but, its inspectors not having boarded the ship, declined to speculate directly on the causes of the cracking of the 275m long, 37.1m wide MSC Napoli.
ALERT investigates tanker repairs A NEW research study is underway to establish the cumulative effect on structural integrity of repairing a tanker throughout its life. The Assessment of Life-cycle Effect of Repairs on Tankers’ (ALERT) research project follows the high profile cases of structural failure witnessed in the cases of the tankers Erika and Prestige. The report into the loss of the latter by the Bahamas Maritime Authority made a number of recommendations concerning the survey, inspection and repair of tankers. These recommendations are now the basis for a new European Commission funded study. The two year project will investigate the effect
of joining new steel to old steel, the additional stresses put into a ship’s structure during a repair and whether fatigue in the structure is affected when part of the structure is replaced. It will also ask how any adverse effects of repairs be detected and minimised. The study is being undertaken by a
consortium of European partners plus the Bahamas Maritime Authority and will be coordinated by Newcastle University, with technical coordination by the University of
PEOPLE New chief for Lloyd’s Register
RICHARD Sadler has been appointed as Lloyd's Register's new chief executive, in line with executive chairman David Moorhouse's long-held intention to relinquish executive responsibility for the Lloyd’s Register Group by the end of June 2007. The appointment will come into effect on July 1, 2007, with transfer of day-to-day operational responsibilities to Mr Sadler beginning immediately. Mr Moorhouse will remain as chairman of the class body. Mr Sadler, who currently holds the position
of director of Lloyd’s Register EMEA, first joined Lloyd’s Register in 1976, working in the marine, industrial and offshore sectors before moving on to a number of overseas postings. He has a BSc in Naval Architecture and a Post-Graduate Diploma of Welding Technology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineers and a Member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects.
Richard Sadler, Lloyd’s Register’s new chief executive
THE NAVAL ARCHITECT FEBRUARY 2007
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