LNGC A R R I E R OILT A N K E R 40FT.SWL400FT.

T W O
S H I P
T Y P E S
W I T H
S A M E
BOW CUSHION
Bow cushion is experienced strongly when following conditions are met:1.

D R A F T

Proximity to a bank. The bow wave will be more easily dispersed whenthe bank is
submerged. Bank suction suffers to a lesser extent from lossin strength when the bank is
submerged.2.
The ship must be on a parallel course to the bank. To build up the bowwave on the side of the
bank, the ship must run parallel or close toparallel to the bank. Bank suction has a much
greater tolerance for theangle between ship and bank.3.
The ship must reach a certain speed to build up a bow wave. In thisrespect the ships speed is
relative to her size, for we must take intoaccount the ships beam and bottom clearance as
factors contributing tothe height of the bow wave.4.
The ship must have a large underwater area forward of the pivot point,which is the case when
the ship is in loaded condition. Trim by the headincreases the underwater area forward of the
pivot point, andconsequently, accentuates the effect of bow cushion. In combination
withpoint 3 above, we must also consider that the longitudinal component of the increased
bow wave in shallow water tends to push the pivot pointback, which, in turn, tends to
increase lateral area forward of the pivotpoint and provides the transverse component of the
bow wave with added

leverage. When a sheer develops the pivot point tends to shift evenfarther back, adding again
to the force and the leverage of the lateralresistance forward, intensifying the sheer.Case
Studies:1.
Collision between loaded freighter (proceeding from sea to Amsterdam)and an approaching
vessel in Amsterdam-North Sea Canal.Findings: The vessel was kept off the centre line of the
canal. Requiredsome starboard rudder all the time to be kept steady. Uncontrollable
sheertowards the entrance of a branch canal on the port side.Conclusion: On arriving at the
entrance of the branch canal, the raisedwater level on the port bow dropped off into the
branch canal resulting inpredominating pressure of the bow wave on the starboard bow.2.
Collision between deeply-loaded ore carrier proceeding inward & anapproaching vessel in
Ymuiden canal.Findings: The ore carrier had a trim by head of 3 ft. which was beingcorrected
at the time of accident. The pilot left the centre line of the canaltoo early. Once on the
starboard side of the canal, the ship took uncontrollable sheer across the canal and not with
standing bothforward tugs pulling to starboard and full astern on the engine- ran intothe
approaching vessel.Conclusion: The ships with a large lateral underwater area forward of
thepivot point must avoid getting caught in a situation where the bowcushion will start a
sheer, for that sheer is hard to break! Given the rightconditions bow cushion can be
embarrassingly strong, the more so sinceit is backed up and followed by an increasing effect
of suction.3.
Collision in the River Danube at Sulina between Satya Padam carryingiron ore and at even
keel draft and Valerie.Findings: When the Valerie was sighted, in daylight and good
visibility,coming down the river, the Romanian licensed pilots on two ships agreedto pass
port to port. At this point Satya Padam reportedly lost steeringcontrol and started to sheer to
port. The wheel was hard over to stbd andthe engine was on full speed ahead. It took two
minutes before the shipshead started to come back to stbd. The master of the Satya Padam,

whowas paying full attention to the steering problem, noticed suddenly whenthe ship pulled
out of the sheer that the Valerie, in turn, had taken sheeracross the river and now was trying to
pass in front of his ship. The sheerof the Valerie in fact was a course alteration, made at the
request of thepilot of the Satya Padam on VHF. The pilot of the Satya Padam must
have strongly believed in steering gear failure, for he left hard stbdrudder on while he
requested his colleague on the other ship to altercourse to port.Three cables east of milestone
24, where the ships collided, is the outletof the Maliuc streamlet, an inlet in the river bank of
the Danube intowhich the bow cushion of the Satya Padam could drop off and run
up.Conclusion: As the steering had posed no problems until the meetingwith the Valerie, we
can assume that the Satya Padam had proceeded inmid-channel up to then. It was when the
Satya Padam had moved over tostarboard side of the channel a few minutes before the
collision that thedifficulty in steering was experienced. It must be considered that, at thetime
of the sheer , the Satya Padam was down by the head, due to squat.With her speed close to 10
kts through the water (there was a restrictionto 8 kts) and her deep draft forward, there must
have been a significantbow wave. The drop in bow cushion into the Maliuc stramlet caused
thehelmsman to take off starboard rudder that was on to keep the ship to herstarboard side of
the channel and probably he did even have to apply portrudder. In any case the helmsman
was obviously unprepared for therenewed bow cushion effect immediately after the ship
passed the Maliucstreamlet.The large underwater lateral area forward of the pivot point of
deepdrafted vessels makes them susceptible to the effect of bow cushion,Moreover large
overall underwater lateral area gives the deep draftvessels a relatively smaller rudder area
ratio as compared with ships inlight condition.4.
Collision in the Mississippi River between bulk carrier Southwindheavily laden proceeding
upriver and Astros coming downriver.5.
Collision in the River Seine between Japanese tanker Fuyoh Maru inloaded condition
proceeding upriver, and a Greek tanker Vitoria inballast, not gasfree, coming downriver on 24
th
June 1987 halfwaybetween Le Havre and Rouen.Six people including the Master and the
pilot perished.
(Ref. Capt. H.H. Hooyer in The Nautical institute on pilotage and shiphandling)
GENERAL POINTS ON INTERACTION
1.
Prior to meeting the other vessel in narrow channel, each ship shouldremain in the centre of
the channel for as long as possible. Failure to do
so could expose either ship to bank effect, leading to sheer across thepath of the oncoming
ship or grounding.2.
Speed should be low to reduce the interactive forces. There is, then,plenty of reserve power
for the use of corrective kicks ahead.3.
If the ships pass from deep to shallow water at any time during themanoeuvring, the forces
will increase drastically and extreme cautionshould be exercised.4.
The smaller of the two ships and tugs, are likely to be the most seriouslyaffected. Large ships
should be aware of this and adjust their speedaccordingly.5.

Pre-emptive and bold corrective action may be required to prevent orbreak strong sheers.6.
The engines should be brought to dead slow ahead for the manoeuvre,particularly turbine or
fixed pitch propeller ships, so that power isinstantly available to control the ship with kicks
ahead.7.
On completion of the manoeuvre each ship should regain the channelcentre as quickly as
possible to avoid any furtherance of the bank effect.8.
Pilots who are engaged in canal work all the time become veryspecialised in this area and
their advice should always be sought when indoubt.
(Ref. Captain R.W.Rowe, author, The Shiphandlers guide)
SQUAT
The reduction of underkeel clearance when a vessel is making way throughthe water as
compared to when she is not making way through the water iscalled as Squat.For full form
vessels such as supertankers or OBO vessels (block co-eff. >0.7), change of trim due to squat
will be by head whereas in case of passenger liners or container vessels (block co-eff. < 0.7)
change of trim dueto squat will be by stern. This is assuming that they are on even keel
whenstationary (i.e. not making way through the water).Vessels trimmed by the stern when
stationary (not making way through thewater) will trim further by the stern due to squat.
Vessels trimmed by thehead when stationary (not making way through the water) will trim
furtherby the head due to squat. This is consistent with Bernoullis streamline flowtheory.
Casualties of excessive Squat
Herald of Free Enterprise RORO vessel 06/03/1987QE II Passenger liner 07/08/1992Sea
Empress Supertanker 15/02/1996Diamond Grace 2,60,000t dwt VLCC atTokyo
Harbour02/07/1997Ship type Typical C
B
,fullyloaded
B
Ship type Typical C
B
,fullyloaded
B
ULCC 0.850 General Cargo 0.700Supertanker 0.825 Passenger liner 0.625Oil tanker 0.800
Container ship 0.575Bulk carrier 0.750 Coastal tug 0.500
SIGNS OF SHALLOW WATER EFFECT
(One or more of the following)1.
Wave making increases, especially at the forward end of the ship.2.
Vessel becomes more sluggish to manoeuvre. A pilots quote, almostlike being in
porridge.3.
Draft indicators on the bridge or echosounders will indicate changes inend drafts.4.
Propeller RPM indicator will show a decrease. If the ship is in openwater conditions, i.e.
without breadth restrictions, this decrease may beupto 15% of the service RPM in deep water.
If the ship is in a confinedchannel, this decrease in RPM can be up to 20% of the service
RPM.5.

There will be drop in speed. If the ship is in open water conditions thisdecrease may be up to
30%. If the ship is in a confined channel such as ariver or a canal then this decrease can be up
to 60%.6.
The ship may start to vibrate suddenly. This is because of the entrainedwater effects causing
the natural hull frequency to become resonant withanother frequency associated with the
vessel.7.
Any rolling, pitching and heaving motions will be reduced as the shipmoves from deep water
to shallow water conditions. This is because of the cushioning effects produced by the narrow
layer of water under thebottom shell of the vessel.

8.
The appearance of the mud could suddenly show in the water around theships hull say in the
event of passing over a raised shelf or a submergedwreck.9.
Turning circle diameter (TCD) increases. TCD in shallow water couldincrease 100%.10.

Stopping distances and stopping times increase, compared to when avessel is in deep
waters.C
B
XS
0.81
XV
2.08
Maximum Squat = metres.20C
B
= Block co-eff.S = Blockage factor = Submerged cross section area of shipSubmerged cross
section area of channel= b x dB x Dwhere b & d : breadth & draft of ship and B & D :
breadth & depth of the channel resplyV = Vessels speed relative to the water, in knots.If the
vessel is in open shallow water, B= Breadth of the channel is taken asB = {7.7 + 20 (1 C
B
) } X b, known as the width of influence.
B
2
The width of influence ranges from 8.25b for supertankers, to about 9.5b forgeneral cargo
ships to about 11.75 ship breadths for container ships.
The presence of another ship in a narrow channel may cause the squatsto double in
value as they pass/ cross the other vessel.SHORT-CUT FORMULAE
1.
Maximum Squat = C
B
xV
B
K2
metres for open water conditions only100 where D/d = 1.1 to 1.4.
2.
Maximum Squat = C
B
xV
B
K2
metres for confined channels only50 where S = 0.100 to 0.265
.

CONSTANT RADIUS TURN

The object of ocean navigation is basically to find a ships position. Incoastal and confined
waters, another dimension is added-the margins forerrors are smaller, and actual ship
handling must be integrated with the purenavigational disciplines. In restricted waters, the
traditional philosophy of position fixing at intervals in terms of a point-e.g. cross bearings,
bearingand distance off a reference object, or latitude/ longitude- is no longer aprime
objective.In order to maintain safe positioning at all times, procedures to keep acontinuous
check on the cross track error must be used. Accurate cross track monitoring is as important
when turning as on straight courses. Theserequirements make it obvious that a transit in
restricted waters must be wellplanned, since according to the nature of the environment , time
will notpermit navigation in traditional sense-i.e. fixing the position and setting anew
course.1.
Rate of turn indicators (Rate Gyros) are installed mainly on large ferries(car/ passenger)
running on time on a schedule between two ports inconfined waters (e.g. between Sweden
and Finland), ships trading oninland waters/ rivers and canals, large tankers, container
vessels, and inships with the bridge in extremely forward position.Rate gyros are very useful
for turn control as they can sense/ measure theships angular velocity much more accurately
than is possible by thehuman eye. Some rate gyros are equipped with separate gyroscopes
andothers receive their input from the gyrocompass. The sensitivity of therate gyros can be as
low as 0.5
0
per min.2.
A type of autopilot, designed for ships navigating on the rivers and canalsof Europe is known
as the river-pilot. The river-pilot is normally operatedby a tiller type lever with two
alternative functions. One function is as inordinary tiller steering, but the second and most
important function forprecise turn control is the automatic mode when a tiller order will
causethe river pilot to apply a rudder angle to build up quickly a rate of turn(ROT) to the
value ordered by the tiller. This (ROT) will then bemaintained automatically until the tiller
steering is changed. In order tomaintain a straight course, a turn rate of 0
0
/ min is ordered. Should theship deviate from the desired course due to some outside force,
the coursemust be adjusted manually with trim setting or with a new ROT order.Turns
controlled by a river-pilot will be more accurate than those donemanually, even with the aid
of rate gyro.
3.

Radius steering unit : A self adaptive auto pilot which will both maintaina straight compass
course and perform accurate pre-selected constantradius turns is theKockums Steermaster
2000. The input is compassheading and ROT derived from the compass. As the rudder
anglerequired to maintain a straight course or a constant rate of turn depends toa certain
degree on the water depth and the ships speed, input is takenfrom the echo sounder and a
doppler log. The speed input is also neededto produce a constant radius and with a dual-axis
doppler log in bottomtrack, any drift caused by wind or current can be automatically
corrected.The navigators controls are a joystick to select a new course and pushbuttons to
select the turn radius. The radius can be changed at all times,including when a turn is in
progress. A standard feature of the steermasteris the override which in the case of a
malfunction of the steermaster orthe helmsman will give the navigator immediate direct
access to thesteering gear.Many of the large ferries in the demanding traffic between Finland
andSweden and many other Scandinavian passenger and cargo ferries areequipped with a
radius steering unit. A number of deep sea vessels alsohave the equipment but, with the
exception of the ferries and the carcarrier company Wallenius and OK tankers, the training
for the mastersand officers in the use of the equipment has been poor. Many use thesteering
unit only as a conventional autopilot to steer a straight courseand switch over to manual in
narrow waters.Experiences from large ferries and car carriers have shown that with
anadvanced form of radius steering unit, such as the Kockums Steermaster2000, it is possible
to keep the cross track error at the exit of a turn to lessthan 20 m, even in very adverse
weather.COMPARISON :CONSTANT RUDDER ANGLETURNCONSTANT RADIUS TURN1.
Larger drift angle with acorresponding loss of speedLesser drift angle & hence lesserloss of
speed2.
A large rudder angle is neededto steady the vessel on newcourseAt the end of the turn, the
newcourse can be steadied with lesserrudder angle3.
Uncertainty of ships positionduring the turnProper control of ships posn.during the turn

4.
Higher fuel consumption dueto zig zagging with excessive useof helm.Lesser fuel
consumption, withreserve rudder and engine poweravailableConstant radius turn technique is
based on the following formula:Rate of turn (Degrees/ minute) = 57.3 x V60 Rwhere V=
Ships speed over ground, in knots and,R= Radius of the turn in nautical miles.The distance
of wheel over point from the point where the turn is to becomeeffective is usually taken as
one ships length but it is recommended to findit out by some practice turns on the type of
ship one is serving.Following formula can be used to find the distance of wheel over line
fromthe new course line and the same can be used to set the parallel indexing lineor the line
of turn for giving the wheel over order:Distance of wheel over line from the new course line
=F sin

+ R (1 cos

) where,F = one ships length (usually), R = Radius of the turn,

= Change of course in degrees between initial course and final course