23 November 2021
Port Ash Australia: Ship Handling Training & Research Centre
By A. Beazley, Port Ash, Australia
#Anchor #shipanchor #windlass Anchoring is one of the very frequent operations onboard ships. A number of variables and external factors influence the duration and location of an anchoring operation. While the type of seabed is of utmost importance during anchoring, soft muddy grounds or clay bottoms are best preferred. It should be taken care that the anchoring bottom is free of power lines, submarine cables, pipelines or rocks. Various methods on anchoring include consideration of...
A handy and simple tool to determine in a minimum time what is really needed as tug assistance, is the Bollard Pull Calculator which calculates in an approximate way the total required tug power for ships in various conditions of wind and current. This tool can be loaded as an app on the smart phone.
Over the course of 4 days this August, I was afforded the opportunity and privilege of riding with the Savannah Bar Pilots for an article I was writing for a major maritime magazine. The pilots are given the responsibility of boarding a vessel in the Atlantic Ocean and safely navigating the vessel up the Tybee Road 9 (a name for the shipping lane that leads into the Savannah River), into the Savannah River, and into the Port of Savannah. The same is done in reverse when a ship is outbound...