'Shame' - a Blogpost about containers lost at sea

[DaveRo]

The latest post by Olivier Chapuis of the French mag Voiles et Voiliers is interesting, especially the photos.

In French: http://olivierchapuis.blogs.voilesetvoiliers.com/2014/03/31/la-honte/

Gogle translation: http://tinyurl.com/kqozulh

(We met Olivier in Leros Marina at the end of 2012.)

 

[Tomahawk]

It does scare me witless sailing at night ... Just hoping we don't hit something hard.

 

[pathfinderstu]

I agree ..apart from the hundreds of containers washed overboard every year all the other debris too. I certainly couldn't do any long single handed passages and be able to sleep without a proper lookout....

 

[Tomahawk]

How do you keep a lookout for something that is mostly submerged and not lit?
Sit looking at the radar... Or go outside and peer into the blackness? We have crash bulkheads and if we did hit something we sould not sink... but it is still very worrying.

 

[Plomong]

The latest post by Olivier Chapuis of the French mag Voiles et Voiliers is interesting, especially the photos.

In French: http://olivierchapuis.blogs.voilesetvoiliers.com/2014/03/31/la-honte/

Gogle translation: http://tinyurl.com/kqozulh

(We met Olivier in Leros Marina at the end of 2012.)

An inshore fishing boat, 2 persons aboard, was lost around these parts recently as a result of colliding with a submerged container. Fishermen saved, boat lost, container recovered intact.

Plomong

 

[Daydream believer]

I agree ..apart from the hundreds of containers washed overboard every year all the other debris too. I certainly couldn't do any long single handed passages and be able to sleep without a proper lookout....

You should try sailing from Grim old Grimsby to Lowestoft
No containers, but you can do a slalom around the thousands of lobster pot markers
Probably a lot more dangerous in statistical terms

 

[GHA]

I have a piece of 6mm steel plate cut out from a depth sounder install at the chart table to remind me the boat might get a bit bent but I'll bounce off!

Helps sleeping offshore

 

[bbg]

I certainly couldn't do any long single handed passages and be able to sleep without a proper lookout....

Trust me, you could. In fact, at some point you wouldn't have a choice ...

 

[ChiPete]

The blog makes reference to the deliberate overloading of TEUs with the aim to reduce costs.

I had thought, clearly incorrectly, that the ship to shore container cranes would have some form of weight measurement system to permit checking of the declared weight.

If, as seems to be reported, that incorrect TEU load distribution and trim are causing ships to founder, this is sure a major issue the IMO needs to address as a matter or urgency. Is it simply a case of not enough lives lost yet??