SWELL
CAUSES SALVAGE WORK TO SLOW ON STRICKEN RENA IN NZ
A
strong 3-metre sea swell has held up the unloading of containers from
a ship that ran aground on a New Zealand reef two months ago.
Dutch
salvage
company Svitzer is unloading the containers from the 47,000-ton
Liberian-registered Rena, which has cracked almost in two
and is listing 21 degrees on the reef it hit on October 5.
The
swell rocked the stricken ship, preventing work. A crane barge has
already lifted 166 containers from the ship another 1,100 remain.
Matthew
Watson
Spokesman
Maritime
New Zealand
Salvors
are still on board installing rigging needed for the operation to
continue when the seas drop and continuing to skim residual fuel oil
from the wreck. No one knows how long this job is going to go on or
how much it will cost. Svitzer needs security and guarantee that it’s
being paid for the work. The bar in the Rena case has been set quite
high, simply because it reflects the protracted and complicated and
time-consuming job of this case. Svitzer is acting in accordance with
standard procedures for the salvage of a ship. If people have insured
their goods on the vessel, they will get them back or the insurance
value of their loss.”
It
is speculated that the company is claiming 80 per cent of the value
of each consignment. A figure Television New Zealand reported was the
highest rate ever charged on goods salvaged from a vessel. The
previous highest charge was 60 per cent for cargo retrieved from the
wreck of the ship Napoli off the west coast of England in January
2007.
WIND
TURBINE PROTOTYPE SINKS IN EXTREME WEATHER
Offshore
wind energy company SWAY has reported that its floating wind tower
test model sank last week in bad weather.
The
1:6 scale test model is located outside Bergen, Norway, and has been
now surveyed by an ROV. There is no visible structural damage and the
company will assess repairs after the tower is recovered.
Extreme
weather exceeding the design parameters is the direct cause leading
to the sinking of the prototype. The scale model was designed for a
maximum wave height of four meters, which represents full-scale waves
with a maximum wave height of 26 meters.
Data
collected at the site shows a wave higher than 6.3 meters hit the
model. This corresponds to a 40.6 meter wave in full scale. In
comparison, the ‘North Sea hundred year wave’ is just 30 meters.
Water
entered the tower through the inlet pipe for the power cable (the
J-tube). SWAY explains. The J-tube will be extended to eliminate this
risk before the 1:6 scale model is redeployed. The company says it
has learned from this freak incident.
