A sailing trip from Dieppe to Boulogne ended badly for Richard Brown and his wife, when a fishing trawler collided with their Hallberg-Rassy 36. Forced to anchor in the outer harbour amid gale force 9 winds, the pair had dutifully put on their anchor light and kept the harbour master informed of their location, so what had gone wrong?

 Together they were towed, unscathed into the inner harbour, with only superficial damage to their vessel, but head-on collision could easily have made the circumstances much worse.

As a Seamanship expert, Bill Anderson is well placed to offer some insight as to why there was a collision, and what further actions could be taken to avoid one, as he explains to Yachting Monthly.

Impaired night vision “A single white light 15 metres or so above deck is not ideal, as skippers tend to look ahead rather than up. The fishing boat had just left an area of quite high ambient light, which might have helped her skipper to see the anchored yacht but won’t have done much for his night vision.” 

Insufficient lighting  “The Colregs seems to acknowledge that white anchor lights are sometimes insufficient. Rule 30(c) says that ‘A vessel at anchor may, and a vessel of 100 metres and more in length shall, also use the available working or equivalent lights to illuminate her decks’,” he said.

 “Deck working lights, fitted on the underside of spreaders or below the steaming light, used to be quite standard equipment but they seem to have gone out of fashion, a side effect perhaps of furling headsails and reefing lines led aft to the cockpit. They were extremely useful, and perfectly legal, as additional illumination when at anchor, particularly in areas with much brighter lights along the shore.”

Anchor watch “If you don’t have deck working lights and have to anchor very close to a busy fairway, the best defence would probably be an anchor watch with a powerful torch. How easy it is to be wise after the event!”

Talk to us today about your yacht insurance.

The sun is setting on the Brent Oil Rigs, four North Sea platforms which have contributed massive amounts to the UK economy, in terms of energy supply and jobs. When it comes to number crunching the demolition project, there’s a lot to take in.

10 years is how long it’s taken Shell to make preparations for Brent Fields demise. The 300 studies involved take this planning from careful to painstakingly meticulous. With the costs and logistics involved, it has to be.

£20 billion is the amount in today’s money that the field has contributed towards tax revenues.

7500km of pipeline is planned for decommission in the next eight years, along with the partial removal of 100 platforms from both UK and Norwegian seas, and the plugging of 1800 wells.

1982 was the year that the Brent Fields saw its peak, producing more than half a million barrels a day.

There are 4 rigs which make up the Brent Fields – Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta.

The 40-year task of decommissioning and removing Brent Fields is estimated to cost between£30bn – £50bn. This bill could be less if large segments of the rigs are allowed to remain in the sea.

The topside of the Delta rig weighs 24,000 tonnes. When it is moved in May, it’ll involve the single heaviest lift. Last year, the boat The Pioneering Spirit claimed this accolade for its part in removing a rig in Norway last year.

Assumed the shipping industry doesn’t have enough of a cyber exposure to be a risk? Think again. Insurers are warning that the shipping industry is a prime target for cyber criminals.

Over 90% of the world’s goods are carried at sea, representing a treasured bounty for cyber criminals. An attack on a shipping or transportation company can have extensive effects, impacting supply chains throughout the world. Ports increasingly rely on communications systems to keep operations running efficiently, and any IT hiccups can create major disruptions for complex logistic supply chains.

June 2017 saw a division of Danish transport company A.P. Moller-Maersk hit by the Petya ransomware attack, which began in the Ukraine and impacted several of the company’s port terminals in the United States, India, Spain and the Netherlands, as well as causing computer outages for the business across the world.

 “The modern-day pirate is no longer going to walk onto a ship with a gun,” said Luis Gazitua, a partner at JAG Insurance Group.

“Now there are two guys behind a computer who can shut down a grid and shut down shipping routes.

“The truth is everybody has cyber exposure. Everybody’s connected to the internet.”

International shipping association BIMCO has recently updated its guidelines on cyber security onboard ships, reflecting contingency planning and response advice aimed specifically at ships, and adding a subchapter on dedicated cyber insurance.

“What ransomware has the ability to do is to impair the operational functionality of every industry — shipping and logistics being no exception to that,” said Stefan Toi, senior broker with Aon’s professional risk solutions group in New York.

If you are worried about the cyber risks your business might face, talk to one of our experienced brokers for an impartial chat.

Almost every technological advancement in history was considered impossible before it became the norm. Imaginative digital developments are currently leading the way in revolutionising business processes around the globe. All along the maritime supply chain, ‘digitalisation’ represents a variety of innovations. Processes are being brought up to date with new technology which saves time and boosts safety, while new machinery is being created to usher in a new era for shipbuilding, port transactions and more. What are the opportunities of digitalisation for ship owners, suppliers, authorities and other marine businesses?   Shipping and transportation Round-the-clock tracking of transportation services is already in full swing, and largely expected by end-users. Digitised documentation offers an accurate, computerised way to track cargo, fulfilling a number of logistical roles and automating the more labour-intensive parts of maritime transportation. Blockchain technology, which creates online databases that are harder to tamper with or mistakenly alter than paper records, could recover billions of dollars lost to coordination costs in the shipping industry, according to the director of research at IBM.   Digitalised ports  Ports are evolving, with authorities already working to optimise operations by coordinating each stage of a vessel visit. Digitised ports will collect and share data from each operation to improve efficiency, security and environmental impact. Further still, the Port of Qingdao in China is Asia’s first fully automated port terminal. The unmanned port automatically anchors cargo ships and unloads their containers, and is quicker, safer and 30% more efficient than a traditional port.   Autonomous ships Vessels already use digital weather data and auto navigation, but ships which are fully automated and crewless could be coming very soon. Self-driving, they would be monitored from control centres on shore and manned only by drones. What’s more, smart ships could boost performance, productivity and safety by using nanotechnology (microscopic sensors in paint and coatings which report data, such as the strain they are put under by certain weather conditions) and ultra sensitive monitoring (for example, acoustic fibres which can detect minute changes in vibrations).   Supply chain  Manufacturing processes will almost certainly be revolutionised by digitalisation, as factory hardware becomes smart. Armed with sensors and the ability to report errors, breakdowns and productivity statistics to managers, unexpected stops can be kept to a minimum and performance can be optimised.   Data and digital platforms The use of data is already widespread; for example, satellite navigation. But the potential for gathering and analysing ‘big data’ is huge with digitalisation. Adding sensors to ships could generate information about currents, wavelengths, wildlife, obstacles at sea and more - all of which could then be studied from land. Meanwhile, digital interfaces are being designed with a more user-oriented, easy-to-use approach than ever. Digitisation opens up new business models, as new technological advances expose new opportunities to influence the marine supply chain. Has your business adopted any digitalised processes yet?