[Peetwo]

Chris Cowper (legend) with some disturbing facts about Emerald Gen II peak season loading?? -   

Chris Cowper

THE GEN II EMERALD LOAD LIMIT MYSTERY IS SOLVED.

It has been noted, French owned Transdev, the company contracted by the NSW Government to run the Sydney Ferry network, has recently placed a passenger load limit of 250 on their 400 passenger, Chinese built Gen II Emeralds.

Yes, these vessels are surveyed for 400 passengers.

The truth is: it's all about keeping to the timetable.

Not about carrying fare paying passengers.

If GEN II Emeralds sail with full loads, due to the extraordinary time taken to load and unload, particularly at low tides, they cannot keep to the timetable.

So, Transdev would rather attempt to curry favor with Transport for NSW by keeping to the timetable, than by fulfilling their obligations to the tax paying public, and not stranding customers on the wharf.

Managers, several of whom were former Sydney Ferry floating staff, are constantly monitoring Gen II passenger numbers to make sure Ferry Crews don't get carried away and attempt to move as many passengers as possible.

We should remember, not so many years ago, (2020/2021) we had 4 Freshwater Class vessels on the run in summer, each capable of carrying 1,100 passengers, and they couldn't keep up with the demand on busy days.

Transdev, this is beyond a joke.

Not my photo below.

Still chasing up on the rumoured overload of an Emerald Gen II on the CQ to Manly run? ATM there is no indication of such an incident being reported to the regulator, although there is still no monthly summary of serious incidents for the month of December 2022??: 2022 monthly domestic commercial vessel incident reports

However if the rumour is even remotely true and Transdev, AMSA and OTSI are sitting on this serious incident report then the safety risks (posed by commercial imperatives) are obviously not properly mitigated in a time of high demand (peak period):

"..We should remember, not so many years ago, (2020/2021) we had 4 Freshwater Class vessels on the run in summer, each capable of carrying 1,100 passengers, and they couldn't keep up with the demand on busy days..."

   
The following is a recent AMSA blurb that is IMO extremely relevant: https://www.amsa.gov.au/watertight-and-w...w-standard

Three standards merged into one

The requirements for watertight and weathertight integrity for domestic commercial vessels are currently spread across three technical standards contained in the Uniform Shipping Laws (USL) Code which were developed more than 40 years ago.

Section C2 is a long outstanding section of the NSCV.

We are updating the requirements to align with current technology and international standards and best practice.

Changes to the current USL Code standards will help us manage safety risks.

A number of fatal and serious incidents over the last 40 years have highlighted the need for change.



Purpose of the new freeboard mark

Recent incidents involving domestic commercial vessels highlight the dangers of overloading.



In one example, a landing barge capsized.

The vessel was overloaded and the master was not provided with accurate information about safe loading.

The original maximum displacement was 64.4 tonne, however post incident, its displacement was estimated to be 91.0 tonne. There were also watertight issues associated with the vessel’s main deck hatches that may have contributed to the incident.

Increases in loading conditions impact on the stability of the vessel, and create a significant risk of capsize or foundering. The proposed NSCV C2 includes a new freeboard mark for vessels that do not have a load line mark. This will provide the master and crew with reliable visual loading information, including checking for overloading prior to departure and again on arrival.

The freeboard mark will also assist the owner and master to track any ‘creep’ in displacement from modifications or additional equipment, and provide a point of reference for surveyors in verifying freeboards against the stability documents.

Hmm...so do the Emeralds have a freeboard mark?

I also noted these very relevant comments in regards to limited loading of 250 pax (+ 250 pax) for meeting scheduling purposes:

"Limiting to numbers to stay on schedule and not having reliable controls in place to do that. Schedule to the agreed contract with TFNSW must be a priority issue!"

&..

..the emerald are only loading to 250 so they can keep the time table.
This raises questions about the time to unload in an emergency, if they were to return to full capacity and is this a thing that AMSA takes into account when calculating passengers numbers.”

Finally, I thought it was a requirement under AMSA Marine orders to count all POB on and then count all POB off? 

Every passenger counts
Thursday 2 September 2021

Regulatory changes aimed to improve passenger safety on domestic commercial vessels are now in effect.



If you operate a vessel that carries passengers, you must:

Include a procedure in your safety management system to ensure passengers are monitored and accounted for during a voyage. The procedure must allow the master to be able to identify how many passengers are on board at any time.

Include an emergency procedure in your safety management system that deals with a missing passenger.
Some operators will need to ensure that their procedures include a count of all passengers on board the vessel where one or more passengers embark on, or disembark from, the vessel—including when the vessel departs a landing point along the way or departs a site where passengers may have left the vessel to undertake a water activity.

You must also keep a record of the results of any passenger counts in the vessel’s logbook.
If you have a question about how the changes will affect your operation, you can complete our online form. Read more about the regulatory changes to Marine order 504

 

Hmmm..yeah..nah got to be just a rumour - 

MTF...P2