Parametric or synchronous rolling of containerships has been high on the agenda for operators and insurers following a number of incidents in heavy weather resulting large-scale box losses from very large containerships in the last couple of years.
At SMM 2022 MSC signed a contract to implement the new DNV Anti-Roll Assist system and ARCS (Anti-Roll for Containerships) class notation on 100 vessels in its fleet, the first global container line to do so.
The anti-roll application will be integrated into weather routing systems on both newbuildings and vessels currently in operation by MSC. The vessels range from 1,800 teu to 24,000 teu in capacity.
“By implementing the new application on our vessels captains and crew can both plan ahead and react in the moment when a potentially critical situation is identified – enhancing our safety culture,” said Giuseppe Gargiulo, Head of Newbuildings at MSC.
Being integrated into weather routing systems the anti-roll application can be used to reroute around conditions that could cause extreme rolling motions during the voyage.
Jan-Olaf Probst, Director Business Development Hamburg and Executive Vice President at DNV, said: “The combination of factors that lead to rolling which can result in container loss can be very hard to predict.
“In developing the Anti-Roll Assist we wanted to give captains and crews a very clear and simple picture of the risk, based on a combination of crucial factors, including their vessel’s heading and speed. The application can also support the captain and crew in assessing if a navigational adjustment is required.”
According to figures from the World Shipping Council (WSC) 3,133 containers were lost overboard in the 2020 – 2021 period compared to 779 in the previous period, an increase of 400%.
The period included the high-profile incidents of the ONE Apus which lost 1,818 containers overboard in the transpacific in November 2020, and the Maersk Essen which lost 750 boxes overboard in January 2021.
While losses overboard account for less than 0.001% of all 241 million containers annually the incidents can result in highly costly insurance claims.
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