[Peetwo]

Emerald Gen II clusterduck update: 2/12/22

Via Facebook:

Jenny Forster
3 h  ·
More ferry nonsense from state Liberal Government  and Transdev. Coming back from Quay between 2-3 pm on 2December, an Emerald was loaded up with passengers who were directed to the gangway by staff. At last minute gate was opened to empty Freshwater and four minutes later it left with 22 passengers on a 1100 capacity vessel. Staff were counting passengers physically under instruction so their bosses can report Freshwaters are ‘unpopular’.

Had a response from James Griffin’s office to my letter describing last fiasco saying he was dismayed & had passed it on etc. I’d already done that. Next response from his staff informed me that locals preferred Emeralds as they were faster. Well, hello James, I and all the folk on this Save Manly Ferry list do not.

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Comment in reply:

Andrew Drylie

It would Seem that The Government wants to get rid of Manly Ferries altogether and force everyone onto Busses. They ordered Emerald 2s that they knew had a limited capacity and that could not be used in high wave and rough conditions now it seems they are trying to force people on to the Emeralds and
Then send the Freshwaters off Empty.

Responses to Facebook

Posts re Emeralds or Freshwaters Indicate about 85% or more Respondents prefer The Freshwater type Vessels. So keep up The posts re The Freshwaters Especially as The State Government Election is approaching. Make the Retention Of The Freshwaters and the Design and Building of New Large Capacity Double Ended Manly Ferries a Election Issue.

Next via the AP email chains:

A Emerald struggling to stay straight and level (just about to “rotate”) out of Manly. Also, a Freshwater class handling big swell just entering the heads open water from Manly.



No wonder the Emeralds have structural issues from hull twisting and impact. To add salt to the wound, you’ve seen the welding quality on these vessels. I was advised that “this quality of weld wouldn’t pass a TAFE examination!

Finally I want to go back to the question of... 'WHERE THE HELL IS AMSA??'
Ref:

Good question P2...

Indeed, where is AMSA? These ferries are “Domestic Commercial Vessels”. AMSA has jurisdiction re 'seaworthiness, manning and operator certification, under the Maritime Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012.

Clearly there are some very real safety issues; concerns with regard to the basic design and construction; concerns with regard to the quality of structural welding; concerns regarding the damage inflicted crossing Sydney Heads in 'big swell' all of this and there is an on going systematic problem with the steering systems. The things which are most concerning are (in no particular order) the role OTSI has played thus far: the response to the NSW Estimates questions from government officers and, the clear lack of faith the Masters have in the 'reporting' system contained within the SMS  (Safety Management System).

On land, in the air or at sea 'luck' will only get you so far; and the NSW government has, so far, been very fortunate, mostly due to the skill and experience of the crews. Time this whole mess was exposed and the public given back that which they paid for; a safe journey in a seaworthy ship. Perhaps that journey could begin with a home grown service operator who can be held to account and the profits kept 'on shore'. Before there is a serious event...

Toot – toot....

The following is an extract from the OTSI website (my bold):

Ferry Occurrence Notification

The Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law 2013 requires, in part, that the owner/master of a vessel must report accidents to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). This is required under Section 88 and 89 of the Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012, Schedule 1 (National law).

Under NSW Law the Marine Safety Act 1998 No 121, Division 2, Section 99 requires:

99  Duty to report marine accidents to Minister

When a marine accident occurs in connection with a vessel, the master of that vessel (and the owner of the vessel if aware of the accident) must send a report to the Minister containing particulars of the accident as soon as practicable by the quickest means available.

After receiving a report of a marine accident, the Minister may require further information from the owner or master of a vessel involved in the accident to determine whether an investigation should be ordered into the marine accident.

Incidents and accidents include:

(a)  the loss of life of, or injury to, any person on board the vessel,
(b)  the loss of a person from the vessel,
©  the loss of life or injury to a person that is caused by the vessel,
(d)  the loss, or presumed loss, of the vessel (including the sinking or abandonment of the vessel),
(e)  the capsizing, grounding or flooding of the vessel,
(f)  the collision of the vessel with another vessel or with any object,
(g)  the vessel being disabled at sea (in any case in which it requires assistance),
(h)  any fire on board the vessel,
(i)  any damage being caused to the vessel (including any structural failure),
(j)  any damage to the environment caused by the vessel or by any substance on, or discharged from, the vessel,
(k)  any incident that causes danger of any of the above,

Ferry operators can make notifications to the OTSI Duty Officer 24 hours a day by telephoning 1800 677 766 or emailing transport.safety@otsi.nsw.gov.au.

If you are a member of the public and wish to report an incident involving a ferry or obtain information about service disruptions, call 131 500 or visit transportnsw.info.

If you are a transport employee, depending on the nature of the incident or issue you may wish to make a report through the Confidential Safety Information Reporting Scheme (CSIRS).

(K) above IMO would have to include steering failures of all high capacity Sydney Harbour ferries ie the operator would have to fwd through to OTSI. And according to the relevant section (Section 88 and 89) of the Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012 the operator and the Masters are also obliged (with threats of criminal sanctions) to report such serious incidents to AMSA:

Section 88:

  (2)  The owner of a domestic commercial vessel commits an offence if:

                    (a)  the vessel is involved in a marine incident; and

                    (b)  neither the owner nor the master of the vessel gives a written report of the incident, in the form approved by the National Regulator, to the National Regulator within 72 hours after the owner becomes aware of the incident.

Section 89:

(2)  The master of a domestic commercial vessel commits an offence if:

                    (a)  the vessel is involved in a marine incident; and

                    (b)  neither the master nor the owner of the vessel gives a written report of the incident, in the form approved by the National Regulator, to the National Regulator within 72 hours after the master becomes aware of the incident.

Penalty:  60 penalty units.

So with that in mind my curiousity was piqued when AMSA shared the LinkedIn post:

Australian Maritime Safety Authority
19,642 followers
1d • 1 day ago

During October 2022, there were 67 reported incidents involving domestic commercial vessels. Of these, 10 were serious. We publish the incident report monthly and the information is broken down by state, vessel type and a description of the incident. Read the incident report: http://ow.ly/UsST50LQGUb

If you go to the provided link you will see that there is monthly records of incident reports for the whole of 2022...  

 Now given that AMSA grounded the Emerald Gen II fleet (albeit 2 weeks after the serious incidents) I was somewhat stunned to discover that the 2 steering failure occurrences were not listed in the 'serious incident' column for month of September, yet these incidents were??

"..Passenger fell from stairs and sustained injury to wrist and ribs. Sought medical assistance at hospital... 

..Crew member slipped when disembarking and fell into water between vessel and wharf. Crew member recovered without injury... "

     
 More curious now I then flicked through to the July serious incident reports to see if the catastrophic steering failure on Emerald Class Gen I MV May Gibbs on the 19th July was listed but yet again no report..na da (or at least not reported as serious)?? 

Hard to work out whether the reports have just been filtered out; or if indeed AMSA have actually been notified of these incidents at all?  

MTF? - Yes much...P2