Spain give dodgy tanker a Foxtrot Oscar

[Twister_Ken]

"The Spanish Navy escorted a Maltese flagged tanker beyond the 200 mile mark on Saturday night as Madrid enforced its post- Prestige pledge to ban ‘unsafe’ vessels from waters under its control.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said the tanker, named as the Moscowsky, was the first ship to be expelled as part of a crackdown on older, single-hull vessels agreed by France and Spain last week, and to which Portugal and Italy have since signed up.

Despite concerns that the initiative might contravene international rules of passage, Mr Aznar maintained that Spain had a legal right to prevent certain ships from sailing within 200 miles of its coastline."

 

[corkonian1]

Fantastic.And now we wait for the other EU members to follow suit....still waiting

 

[david_e]

A bit like pass the parcel, here you have it. If the tanker is unsafe then it shouldn't be on the high seas, but then again you could say the same about cars. Apparently there are a million or more driving round the UK without tax, insurance and mot's.
And when they finally prang emselves it's the good 'ol nhs that repairs 'em for nothing, the courts and prisons mother them and the rehabilitation system feeds 'em straight back into crime.

Good for Spain, taking positive action, as more take it, and quickly, then the dodgy tankers will have nowhere to go.

Which leads on to the subject of safe tankers carrying dodgy cargo to places like........Sellafield. But I'm not going there!

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Yes, and about time too! If you see Albertos' long but heartbreaking post over on MoBo Chat, you will begin to see what havoc and hell this incident has caused. It seems also that this is set to be the ruination of Galicians for years, maybe decades to come.

If you want to understand more on what b*llocks, procrastination, censorship and lack of initial political will can do, then I recommend you read it.

It is within the power of the EU to bring about an earlier end to these floating junk yards. The Canadians didn't hesitate following the Prince William Sound disaster 10 years ago.

Madoc Yacht Club
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk>http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk</A>

 

[david_e]

Dave, if you are refering to the Exxon Valdiz, then wasn't the skipper drunk on that boat?

 

[Dave_Snelson]

You know David, you may be right. I had forgotten that part. The bottom line remains the same for Canadian waters though.

One can only hope that in 10 years from now, the Galician coast returns to normal. Not sure with extra heavy fuel oil though!?

Madoc Yacht Club
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk>http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk</A>

 

[Trevethan]

Bloody daft if you ask me. The threat is still floating around out there, Just 200 miles out to sea not 100 or 150.

The not in my back yard principle doesn't work on the high seas.. if the ship ruptures 210 miles of the coast, all it takes it wind and current in right direction to bring the oil onshore.

How far off was the Prestige when it went down? about 270 kilometres. Pretty damned close the 200 mile limit.

A far more effective measure would be to seize the vessel and cargo. flog the oil and use the proceeds to decommission the vessel. The hand over the remaining money to teh shipowners minus all costs.

Some might call it piracy of course...

 

[pugwash]

Drunk captain ?

So it was claimed but years later he was exonerated (pun not intended), I'm pretty sure. He'd given the right orders and gone below but the officer on watch then made a fatal mistake.

 

[Paulka]

Right! Bl***y B**ls**t.

The tanker came from the Black Sea, as far as I know.
Thus why wait untill she is in Gibraltar to intervene?
She should have been stopped entering the Med at Istambul on the latest!
She never was more tha 80 - 90 nm from any coast all the way through.

Just politician's hype.

 

[Spacewaist]

Yes but...

if every country in Northern Europe were to ban them they wouldnt come here wd they? Not only wd they not be allowed into any N European port, theyd have to stay 200 miles off - bound for where?

Russia I suppose

LOOK OUT!!! Behind y.......! Five more hoots and you're history!

 

[Trevethan]

Re: Yes but...

I am not sure a single hulled tanker would head to Russia this time of year.. what with ice forming up with the onset of winter.

A tanker couldn't reach the Baltic states without getting close to Norway/Denmark/Sweden/Finland.

Still in my views Spain's new policy isn't going to stop oil spills from unseaworthy ships. Prestige was close to 200 miles ofshore.. I don't think the extra distance would have made a damn's difference to damage to the coast line and fisheries.

The other issue is that they all seem to blame the single skin hull.. Not a marine engineer, but did own a double skinned dinghy once (and managed to sink it!) and yes.. put a hole in the outer hull and you won't sink (or let out cargo), but go out in crappy weather and you'll still go under!

How much stronger is a double hulled vessel than its single hulled counterpart? Not that much I suspect. Double hulls are meant to contain cargo if holed by a reef, collision etc.

The ship sank cos of crappy weather it was made to endure because no one would take responsibility. Her age didn't help much, but I wonder how a similarly sized more modern vessel would have coped if it had been buggered around by politicians in the Bay of Biscay in the middle of a series of storms for all that time?

regards

Nick

 

[Twister_Ken]

>Sellafield. But I\'m not going there!<

Neither am I. I find one head is quite enough.