Suez blocked.

[pyrojames]

That's an awful lot of sand she has stuck herself into fore and aft. 15.7 m draft I read somewhere.

 

[Wandering Star]

One of the obvious advantages of a trailer sailer is that when this sort of thing happens you can just tow your boat home, Has anyone thought about trying to get a large trailer under her keel or weld wheels to her hull then transit the remainder of the canal by road?

 

[Bajansailor]

Just been googling - 13,785 ships went through Panama in 2019 (approx 38 per day), with a total amount of revenue collected of $2,592,000,000 - on average $188,000 per ship.
Panama Canal | Panama Logistics Portal

Suez seems to get rather more ships - 18,880 in 2019, and 18,829 in 2020 - 52 per day on average.
Suez Canal Authority - Wikipedia
Total revenue collected by Suez in 2020 was US$5,610,000,000 - more than twice as much as Panama.
That is approx $298,000 per ship on average.
So the really big vessels like Ever Given are paying around a million dollars to traverse the ditch, while many others are paying much less than $300,000 - it is still an expensive business for a small ship though, especially so if the Egyptians decide it is your turn to cough up some baksheesh for 'damages' (as related by Kukri earlier, when his company had to fork out for damages to a tug that was not even there).

One of the obvious advantages of a trailer sailer is that when this sort of thing happens you can just tow your boat home, Has anyone thought about trying to get a large trailer under her keel or weld wheels to her hull then transit the remainder of the canal by road?

I am sure that the ancient Pharoahs would have been able to sort it out ok - they built their pyramids with slave labour, so just send 500,000 slaves to the scene and they would have had Ever Given out of there in no time at all.

Methinks a name change to 'Ever Giving' will be on the cards soon, re the amount of loot that her Insurers are going to have to stump up to everybody with their begging bowls outstretched.

 

[Kukri]

Fantastic article I get the 'bank' and 'bottom' effects, but since you're in flying form today could you pls walk us through this Yaw/Sway disequilibrium that sets the problem up?

Also, reading this article makes me wonder why these cock-ups don't happen more often as steering these giants seems very precarious indeed

Note to myself: Stick to the day job!



View attachment 112189

Think it’s above my pay grade and/or I once knew more about this than I do now and/or we used to talk about the bow and stern high pressure waves and the midships low pressure area. The effects are more logarithmic than linear; one moment you are fine and then if something changes you are not.

Using those terms, your bow wave will shove you into the middle of the channel or indeed right across it if you get too close.

My reading of the events is that the helmsman of the “Ever Given” was applying port helm to counter wind pressure and she was making quite a high speed (for the canal) to maintain rudder authority. Then there was a lull, which would only be apparent, in an enclosed wheelhouse, by reference to the wind speed and direction indicator. The ship probably started to swing towards the bank before the helmsman noticed that the wind had eased. He then put the helm the other way to correct the swing and as he did so the bow pressure wave threw the bows to starboard, leaving him no time to correct.

The worst case of a catastrophe caused by bank effect was the loss of the Houlder Bros cargo passenger ship “Royston Grange” in 1972. This was shortly before I started so it was much talked about. A horrible, horrible, accident.

STV Royston Grange - Wikipedia

 

[SaltIre]

Wrong forum. Shouldn't this thread be in the East Coast Forum?

 

[z1ppy]

As someone who does have a few years experience in the shipping industry, this thread is truly fascinating. Thank you for all the experts that have far more knowledge than I do and i will be checking back in, need to read the FT article linked but will register later

I am very grateful that my last vessel in this direction (currently) cleared the canal on 18th March. The prospect of having one of our cargoes stuck anywhere near leaves me cold!

Sunday / Monday seems to be the hope but the general feeling we are getting from owners and carriers is routing via the cape...

 

[mjcoon]

When the Americans ran the Panama Canal, they charged enough to maintain it; the Panamanians do much the same plus a bit to maintain a nation of 4.2 million people and build new locks, and indeed it is a by word for reliability, but the SCA take a different approach, having a nation of 100 million to maintain, and charge just slightly less than it would cost to go the long way round.

But doesn't that also make it easier to relinquish that small saving if there's any suggestion of a problem earlier enough?

 

[davidej]

The Beeb has just reported that the latest refloating attempt has failed

 

[dom]

Think it’s above my pay grade and/or I once knew more about this than I do now and/or we used to talk about the bow and stern high pressure waves and the midships low pressure area. The effects are more logarithmic than linear; one moment you are fine and then if something changes you are not.

Using those terms, your bow wave will shove you into the middle of the channel or indeed right across it if you get too close.

My reading of the events is that the helmsman of the “Ever Given” was applying port helm to counter wind pressure and she was making quite a high speed (for the canal) to maintain rudder authority. Then there was a lull, which would only be apparent, in an enclosed wheelhouse, by reference to the wind speed and direction indicator. The ship probably started to swing towards the bank before the helmsman noticed that the wind had eased. He then put the helm the other way to correct the swing and as he did so the bow pressure wave threw the bows to starboard, leaving him no time to correct.

The worst case of a catastrophe caused by bank effect was the loss of the Houlder Bros cargo passenger ship “Royston Grange” in 1972. This was shortly before I started so it was much talked about. A horrible, horrible, accident.

STV Royston Grange - Wikipedia

It seems like an extraordinarily complex interplay between 'wind', 'ground' and 'side' effects, the latter of which increases and decreases exponentially with respect to shore distance while exerting a turning impulse along different points of the hull's length!

Perhaps they'll introduce a wind limit for the bigger ships, or in time maybe some kind of fancy fly-by-wire AP which is able to manage this tricky balance?

The Royston Grange disaster is spine chilling; one can only imagine the horror among the crew as the ships began to behave unexpectedly.

 

[Kukri]

But doesn't that also make it easier to relinquish that small saving if there's any suggestion of a problem earlier enough?

Yes. There are some very silly numbers being quoted.

A simple way of looking at it is that container lines generally give their customers two weeks “Dwell time” at the import terminal, ie free storage, to cover schedule disruptions, and this disruption is going to make the arrival time ten or eleven days later.

 

[billskip]

I am surprised that they have not used either compressed air to liquify and wash away the sand or even a water jet. The other thing they might do is to dig a big and deep hole in front of the bow but leave sufficient material to keep the canal out, when it's done just knock away the retaining wall allow the canal to flood in bringing with it most if not all the sand under the bow. Cheap and simple it may work it may not but I would have given it a go.

I would go for pulling it out the reverse way it went in, but getting the tools to do the job on site may be a bit slow

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I would go for pulling it out the reverse way it went in, but getting the tools to do the job on site may be a bit slow

Certainly the stern looks to be less embedded and might be easier to dislodge.

 

[Caraway]

One of the props will turn the right way to scour the silt from under the stern. Have they been trying that I wonder, or is it ones of those "You can't do that.." jobbies?

Given that the real cost of further delay outweighs the cost of new shafts or even an engine..

 

[billskip]

One of the props will turn the right way to scour the silt from under the stern. Have they been trying that I wonder, or is it ones of those "You can't do that.." jobbies?

Given that the real cost of further delay outweighs the cost of new shafts or even an engine..

My guess is the insurance restrictions on who and what can be done carry huge weight as to the salvage.

I would guess there are few salvage companies that will gamble, also I suspect the salvage company that is appointed will want a few Bob up front

 

[Caraway]

Baksheesh?

 

[wombat88]

So...I am not a betting man but when does the clever money start going round the Cape?

 

[Stork_III]

Certainly the stern looks to be less embedded and might be easier to dislodge.

Profile of the canal at Green Giver position (as posted in Scuttlebutt. by Kukri), illustrates how well and truely aground she is.

https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?attachments/e4b0ac19-6821-47b9-9a27-11bfb5b56040-jpeg.112194/

 

[Kukri]

So...I am not a betting man but when does the clever money start going round the Cape?

Yesterday. The first big container ship to do so was the “Ever Given”s sister the “Ever Greet”.

This isn’t coincidence; Evergreen and OOCL (whose cargoes she also has on board) specialise in taking particularly good care of smaller exporters, in exchange for slightly more money, (OOCL slogan “we take it personally”) and they really don’t want their “little guys” to lose out. By diverting at once they can get those shipments to Europe within the “dwell time” and nobody runs short. Certain other lines (eg the one I work for!) go for large volume shippers and receivers - we haul an awful lot of car components - and their stock situation is less critical.

 

[Cardinal]

Presumably if the work with diggers and dredgers fails, it will be just a slight change of plan to set them all to digging a fresh channel round the obstruction to free the traffic jam. Then the containers can be more easily removed from Ever Given to free her and allow a return to the main channel.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Think it’s above my pay grade and/or I once knew more about this than I do now and/or we used to talk about the bow and stern high pressure waves and the midships low pressure area. The effects are more logarithmic than linear; one moment you are fine and then if something changes you are not.

Even on the very, very much smaller scale of a yacht in the Crinan Canal, these effects are noticeable. Get too close to the bank at speed and it's like trying to steer a wonky shopping trolley.