Cruise Shipping Report
Getting Home Safe
By Claudio Abbate
Cruise ships are getting bigger and bigger. The industry is already ordering ships with over 8,000 people on board. Ten years ago IMO foresaw that the SOLAS regulations applying to passenger ships would need to be changed to cope with bigger and bigger passenger ships. Now those strengthened regulations have been agreed and from July 1, 2010 all new passenger ships will have to comply with a substantially revised set of SOLAS requirements. Over 90 safety initiatives were considered by IMO when developing the new regulations, many of which are already incorporated into new ships building at present. But there is one very big change coming, and that is the Safe Return to Port Concept. These new regulations are a massive step change for designers, builders and classification societies, not to mention national administrations. Classification societies, passenger ship yards, companies and authorities are working hard together, trying to find their way towards harmonized application of the new requirements so as to allow the achievement of a common level of safety at comparable costs. The idea behind the concept is simple, but putting it into practice is not. The Safe Return to Port concept is that a cruise ship shall be capable of returning to port under its own propulsion after a casualty that does not exceed a defined casualty threshold. That sounds simple but it poses a real challenge to ship designers. The relevant amendments to SOLAS refer to both Chapter II-1 (new regulation 8-1) and Chapter II-2 (regulations 21 and 22) and will be applicable to passenger ships built on or after July 1, 2010, having a length of 120 m or more or having three or more main vertical zones. The ship must be able to return to port safely after suffering a casualty which, if it is a fire, involves the loss of the space of origin up to the nearest "A" class boundaries, or loss of the space of origin and adjacent spaces up to the
nearest "A" class boundaries, which are not part of the space of origin. If the casualty is flooding after a hull breach, the casualty threshold is defined to be the flooding of any watertight compartment. A watertight compartment means any onboard space within watertight boundaries below the bulkhead deck. In order to be capable of returning to port safely, the regulations call for the following systems to remain operational in the part of the ship not affected by the casualty (either fire or flooding): 1. propulsion; 2. steering systems and steering-control systems; 3. navigational systems; 4. systems for fill, transfer and service of fuel oil; 5. internal communication between the bridge, engineering spaces, safety centre, fire-fighting and damage control teams, and as required for passenger and crew notification and mustering; 6. external communication; 7. fire main system; 8. fixed fire-extinguishing systems; 9. fire and smoke detection system; 10. bilge and ballast system; 11. power-operated watertight and semiwatertight doors; and 12. systems intended to support "safe areas"; 13. flooding detection systems; and 14. other systems determined by the Administration to be vital to damage control efforts. There is a further overriding require-
ment that certain safety systems (including the fire main, internal communications, means of external communications, bilge systems for removal of firefighting water and lighting along escape routes, at assembly stations and at embarcation stations of life saving appliances) shall remain operational for at least three hours when any of the main vertical zones is lost. That will get the ship home, but there are also further requirements to keep the crew and passengers safe while the ship limps to safety. These are included in the Safe Areas concept. In the case of a fire in a main vertical zone there should be areas on board (called safe areas) so designed as to safely accommodate all persons onboard and to protect them from hazards to life or health and provide them with basic services. A performance standard for safe areas has been developed, mandating basic services such as food, water, sanitation, alternate medical care, lighting and ventilation. Several guidelines have been prepared to assist yards and authorities with implementing the new rules. The key ones for Safe Return to Port are: � MSC/Circ.1129 Guidance on the establishment of medical and sanitation related programmes for passenger ships � MSC/Circ. 1214 Performance standards for the systems and services to remain operational on passenger ships for safe return to port and orderly evacuation and abandonment There are two possible approaches, redundancy or risk management. Redundancy is a systems approach, which duplicates or triplicates systems and equipment. This would be the quickest and simplest way but not always the most cost-effective. A risk management approach based on analysis of fire progression in terms of affected spaces and consequential availability of the required systems may produce a more cost-effective answer. RINA has worked with clients and administrations to develop a set of interpretations. However, the issue needs wider understanding, so RINA is active-
About the Author
Claudio Abbate has recently been appointed to head up Italian classification society RINA's US operations. He was previously head of the Safety System Sector for RINA, and is currently vicechairman of the IMO subcommittee on fire protection.
ly cooperating with a selected group of class societies and stimulating an international forum on this important subject. Only a limited number of shipyards can build large cruise ships, and there is an even smaller number of shipowners who order and operate the big ships. Only three or four class societies along with RINA dominate the passengership sector. By getting all the main players together we hope to achieve sensible and safe interpretations of the new rules for the attention of the Flag Administrations through the International Maritime Organization. IMO has still to resolve one issue, which is the residual stability in flooded condition vs the safe return to port condition. The IMO SLF Sub-Committee "Stability and sea-keeping characteristics of damaged passenger ships in a seaway when returning to port by own power or under tow" has a target completion date for this in 2008. That is uncomfortably close to the implementation date of July 2010, as yards and designers are already working on major projects which will be ordered then. Getting the new Safe Return to Port rules into effect is not going to be easy. But it will make ships much safer.
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