Thread: Cook Strait Ferry

When one of those ferrys had stairing problems and nearlly grounded ayear or 2 back.They found a stairing lickage? was over due for replacement by 6 to 8years.Wtf, head of maintance should have been sacked for that.

hmmm who rembers the govt purchase of a new ship for the navy some years ago lots of hoopla as it was named in honour of one of our heroes Capt Charles Hazlett Upham VC and bar .

Unlike charlie upham this thing turned out to be bloody hopeless and IIRC was last being used as an orange crop carrier in the mediterrainian.

whilst i try to consider both points of view ithink this new govt was right the NZ Rail board may be suffering from a variation of delusions of granduer ,or as arfur daley would say"tryin it on."
seems Nicola willis has her fist firmly on the purse strings! and itll take a sound case to loosen her grip.

Originally Posted by Trout

When one of those ferrys had stairing problems and nearlly grounded ayear or 2 back.They found a stairing lickage? was over due for replacement by 6 to 8years.Wtf, head of maintance should have been sacked for that.

Fixed it for you ….”the head of KiwiRail should have been sacked for that.”

Originally Posted by kotuku

hmmm who rembers the govt purchase of a new ship for the navy some years ago lots of hoopla as it was named in honour of one of our heroes Capt Charles Hazlett Upham VC and bar .

Unlike charlie upham this thing turned out to be bloody hopeless and IIRC was last being used as an orange crop carrier in the mediterrainian.

whilst i try to consider both points of view ithink this new govt was right the NZ Rail board may be suffering from a variation of delusions of granduer ,or as arfur daley would say"tryin it on."
seems Nicola willis has her fist firmly on the purse strings! and itll take a sound case to loosen her grip.

The nearest that pile of rubbish should have ever got to the military was where it ended up - full of naval oranges.

Originally Posted by chainsaw

Fixed it for you ….”the head of KiwiRail should have been sacked for that.”

ill fix it further

prosecuted...

Originally Posted by norsk

The straights between Norway and Denmark gets a bit choppy,but the cats seem to handle that well.

The North Sea is a bit rough and the ferries that ply the coast from Stavanger up to inside the Arctic circle always seem to run ok.

Maybe New Zealand has the wrong kind of water between the two Islands?

Short period, steep face with the odd big bastard chucked in. Worse than the south aussie bight and thats a bad bit of ocean... Where the cats are good are is the open ocean swell and not where it's fully exposed to the currents and cross chop and swell - current flow against chop and swell isnt like the North Sea. Don't get me wrong the North Sea isn't flash but its got different characteristics to whats here.

Originally Posted by kotuku

hmmm who rembers the govt purchase of a new ship for the navy some years ago lots of hoopla as it was named in honour of one of our heroes Capt Charles Hazlett Upham VC and bar .

Unlike charlie upham this thing turned out to be bloody hopeless and IIRC was last being used as an orange crop carrier in the mediterrainian.

whilst i try to consider both points of view ithink this new govt was right the NZ Rail board may be suffering from a variation of delusions of granduer ,or as arfur daley would say"tryin it on."
seems Nicola willis has her fist firmly on the purse strings! and itll take a sound case to loosen her grip.

Different design requirement unfortunately, military cargo is bulky but not dense (kind of like the grunts) but that boat was designed for high density commercial cargos. What happened was the roll center or righting moment was too much and they couldn't ballast the thing enough to get it down to where it should be. The ship would roll over slowly then flick back upright - quite nasty.

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...

Time the Hobbits in NI speak to the dwarfs in the SI and build a underwater supported tunnel.
I missed out on a ferry in March due to engine issues
Another in October due to weather and backlog
Love the freedom of my own vehicle , no bs flight and rifle issues of the ferry

Invest in another couple ferries, build a proper drydick ffs the country is surrounded by water.
Preventative maintenance

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

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

Then you're a very efficient worker indeed.

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

Then you're a very efficient worker indeed.

No, I am just old and experienced I know what it takes to keep machinery running reliably... that knowledge and experience pays my wage.

Or if you meant the barge... it is a modular unit designed for rapid transport and assembly... building it on the water is quick and simple... and fun...

But you did have help didn't you, I mean those aren't the first passengers are they?. I know age and experience come the ability to leave the manual stuff to others while you read the instructions "insert tab a in slot b etc" supervise and offer motivational speeches to crew members

Yes I did have a team , trucks to haul, two crane teams, one to load and one to unload, and four to assemble, myself included... no instruction book I am a bloke so don't need one, but then I did witness the FAT in China...

https://youtu.be/0gPVTd0u_HE