Thread: Cook Strait Ferry

Originally Posted by LBD

We would not be having this discussion if the maintenance procedures for the equipment and the condition monitoring and reliability engineering on the equipment needing to be replaced were all up to scratch.

As a person with a proven reliability track record in the large marine, fixed plant, mobil equipment and diesel power generation industries I am qualified to make that statement.

But sadly maintenance penny pinching and a lack of ownership of machine reliability, is coming to hit us in the pocket also bringing with it an increased risk of accidents and disasters.

Just today I was looking at some of our haul truck data... over 80,000 meter hours on many trucks.. translated at a slow 50kph = 4 million hard kilometers up hill down dale rain hail mud and heat.... so yes safe reliable on going operation of the ferries is acheivable if best maintenance practices were in place.

But we would rather buy new toys for a billion than porperly maintain what we have for a few million more than we currently spend.

And that is my vent for the day, time for a beer.... btw, this is what I built today...Attachment 239454

You're quite correct - but compounding this problem is the fact that the tubs in question arrived second or 27th hand, no documentation, no manufacturer's support and the requirement to get into service ASAP because something else has cocked up. This is the issue, and also the problem with the two-ship solution - if you need two that means three ships as we have no dry dock facilities in NZ so they have to go overseas to be inspected per maritime requirements. There's a hell of a lot more inside a ship than a haul truck as well - not trying to be a dick with this statement but when you are looking at the amount of systems inside 30,000 tons of ferry it's not hard to miss things especially when the documentation from the manufacturer is sitting in a storage locker in some other country where you can't get to it and even if you could it's likely not in English...

Originally Posted by No.3

There's a hell of a lot more inside a ship than a haul truck as well - not trying to be a dick with this statement but when you are looking at the amount of systems inside 30,000 tons of ferry it's not hard to miss things especially when the documentation from the manufacturer is sitting in a storage locker in some other country where you can't get to it and even if you could it's likely not in English...

A) a ship is a ship.... a collection of mechanical bits and irrespective of what information you have or have not... you build up your own TQM.... total quality maintenance package from the moment you take responsibility for her.
B) being a marine engineer, I think I know the difference between a ship and a haul truck.... the truck will not float, hence the barge.

Originally Posted by LBD

A) a ship is a ship.... a collection of mechanical bits and irrespective of what information you have or have not... you build up your own TQM.... total quality maintenance package from the moment you take responsibility for her.
B) being a marine engineer, I think I know the difference between a ship and a haul truck.... the truck will not float, hence the barge.

HAHAHA yeah well, I've seen a haul truck float - you'd be surprised how much bouyancy there is in the bloody great tub on the back. Probably be a different story with the tub loaded of course.

I've been around surveyed vessels for a long time as well, and come in after a few plans have been put together, class survey reviewed and signed off. That's about when you discover how many cockups there were in the plans. One of them had the fuel system to the auxiliary systems on that vessel completely wrong, I'm not sure how many people missed the error in the developed operational procedures and maintenance process documentation but what they had done was set the valves in the auxiliary operating procedure to run the main engine effectively off the auxiliary quarantine 'day tank' and returning the fuel from the main engine to the keel main storage tanks. Not ideal, and as I said not too sure how that many people looked at the system including developing CAD drawings of the fuel plumbing systems and still miss that. It does show that stuff can be missed and not picked up until the inevitable failure occurs.