Ship management is a topic that has rarely been approached in the modern Polish maritime legal sciences. There are numerous reasons behind the present state of affairs but it seems that the foremost one is, that the focus in political, legal and economic discourse is still on the legal aspects of ship ownership. This trend continues despite the fact that today over 73% of world shipping tonnage is managed by the specialized ship management entities. An economic analysis has proven that year after year Poland was ceasing to be a large ship owning nation, it used to be, and that this trend is unlikely to be reversed in the short and mid-term perspective. Poland may, however, still continue to play a vital role in the world of shipping by becoming a ship management centre. This article aims to introduce the Readers to the selected aspects of ship management operations.
The application of waste heat from exhaust gas of ship’s main engines has become widely practiced as early as in the 1930s. Thus the increase of ship’s overall efficiency was improved. Nowadays all newly built ships of the 400 gross tonnage and above must have specified energy efficiency design index, which is a measure for CO2 emissions of the ship and its impact on the environment. Therefore, the design of waste heat recovery systems requires special attention. The use of these systems is one of the basic ways to reduce CO2 emissions and to improve the ship’s energy efficiency. The paper describes the ship’s heating systems designed for the use of waste heat contained in the exhaust gas of self-ignition engines, in which the heat carriers are respectively water vapor, water or thermal oil. Selected results of comparative exergy analysis of simplified steam, water and oil heating systems have been presented. The results indicate that the oil heating system is comparable to the water system in terms of internal exergy losses. However, larger losses of exergy occur in the case of a steam system. In the steam system, a significant loss is caused by the need to cool the condensate to avoid cavitation in boiler feed pumps. This loss can in many cases cause the negative heat balance of ship during sea voyage while using only the exhaust gas boilers.
The article is an attempt of providing basic information on the Polish Register of Ships – (rejestr okrętowy), its legal principles, construction and mode of operation. The text is by no means a comprehensive legal analysis of this institution – such a study would have necessitated much more time and effort, but it is rather a synthetic guidance on how the register is designed, how it works, or at least how it should have worked and what sort of purposes it primarily serves. The publication reflects a present status of legislation in Poland, i.e. the respective regulations of the Polish Maritime Code enacted in 2001. It should be noted that a draft of a new Polish Maritime Code has recently been prepared, that designs the Polish Register of Ships in a slightly different, more flexible and up-to-date, mode. However, at the moment, we are not able to predict when the new regulations might be enacted and become applicable. Polish maritime hypothecation and mortgage are subject to a separate study that shall be presented in the near future.
The article presents research results performed on aluminum bronze CuAl10Fe5Ni5 (BA1055) castings used for marine propellers.
Metallographic studies were made on light microscope and a scanning electron microscope to assess quantitatively and qualitatively the
alloy microstructure. It has been shown that the shape, size and distribution of the iron-rich κ−phase precipitates in bronze microstructure
significantly affect its mechanical properties. With an increase in the number of small κ−phase precipitates increases the tensile strength of
castings, while the presence of large globular precipitates improves ductility. Fragmentation and shape of κ−phase precipitates depends on
many factors, particularly on the chemical composition of the alloy, Fe/Ni ratio, cooling rate and casting technology.
Standard shipping documents such as bills of lading, charter parties, ship management contracts or cargo declarations are prepared to facilitate international maritime traffic. Their application improves the process of determining the content of various types of contracts, which is important in view of the increasing pace of economic turnover. The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) plays a leading role in the development of such documents. The shipping documents it creates, as well as individual contractual clauses, are widely used in global shipping. BIMCO's activity, including its contribution to the creation of rules, general terms and standard contracts for international trade, is fundamental, and BIMCO itself can be considered the most important international maritime non-governmental organization in this respect.
The concept of a Ship Management is vaguely known in the Polish law and legal doctrine although the role of the Ship Manager has become quite complex through the years. It started in the eighties when there was a deep change in the shipping market as many shipping companies became bankrupt and mortgagor banks had to turn to ship managers for help.
Thirty years ago in 1988 BIMCO published the first Ship Management Contract which provided the market with a standard document striking a fair balance between the rights and obligations of the owners and the managers, giving some uniformity in the widely used in-house contracts, particularly in the apportionment of liability between parties.
After the implementation of the ISM Code in 1998 and creating the entity called “Company” as a subject responsible for a safe operation of a vessel the ship manager’s role rose extremely. It caused, among other factors, that BIMCO issued the world wide known form of contract named SHIPMAN 98, which was then superseded by its new version issued in 2009.
The main goal of this article is to bring a reader closer to the issue of a Ship Management and the Ship Manager through a Polish translation of this modern BIMCO form named SHIPMAN 2009.
A ship built from ferromagnetic steel disturbs the uniformity of the Earth’s magnetic field. Changes of ship’s signature are due to the magneto-mechanical interaction of the hull with the Earth’s magnetic field. The ship’s magnetic field can be detected by a magnetic naval mine. For this reason, the vessel has to be demagnetized. There are several methods of ship’s de-perming. The results of experimental and computer simulations of the ship’s de-perming process using coils lying on the seabed are presented in this paper. The simulation of the de-perming process with a hysteresis model of ship’s steel was carried out in Opera-3d 18R2. The laboratory experiments were carried out using a physical ship’s model, several Helmholtz coils, magneto-resistive sensors, etc. The experiments and computer simulations have shown that ship’s de-perming with coils lying on the seabed is possible. The values of coil currents are over dozen times greater than those used in the standard method.
Technical and operational energy efficiency measures for ships, such as the energy efficiency design index (EEDI) and ship energy efficiency management plan (SEEMP), aim to improve the energy efficiency of international shipping. Studies show that absolute emissions from international shipping will increase despite their mandatory application. For this reason, it is important to assess the impact on the effectiveness of the application of mandatory efficiency measures on future emissions. Further measures are being developed at the International Maritime Organization to control emissions from ships, in particular greenhouse gases (GHG) that contribute to climate change. In January 2019, a system of collecting fuel consumption data by ships (Ship Fuel Oil Consumption Database) was introduced.
Energy efficiency measures promoted by the IMO Maritime Environment Protection Committee, initially as facultative, then as mandatory, show strong preventive character. The mandatory use of energy efficiency measures by ships as well as the development of energy efficiency management policies by shipping companies contributes to climate protection and adaptation to climate change.
This article deals with the influence of the maritime pilot on safety of navigation. The role of the pilot is somewhat marginalized, although his activity is directly related to ensuring the safety of navigation in sea ports, protection of the marine environment and minimizing the risk of collision with ships and port infrastructure. Pilot services have been entrusted to private entrepreneurs who meet certain legal requirements and are subject to supervision by the maritime administration. The article contains a reference to the decisions of the Maritime Chamber in Gdańsk in a case, in which the maritime pilot contributed to an accident in the port of Gdańsk and the analysis of these decisions in the context of the role of the pilot in the safety of navigation in port.
The purpose of this analysis is to deal with the first of the conditions for commencement of laytime, i.e. obligation of the vessel to arrive at the agreed destination. The position, prima facie, with regard to berth, dock or port is relatively straightforward, it having been established that the vessel only becomes an arrived ship when it enters the specified berth, dock or port, respectively. In all three cases, in principle, the risk of delay in reaching the specified berth, dock or port is borne by the shipowner. In many cases, the shipowners, for obvious reasons are not prepared to bear such a risk for loss and take appropriate action. In particular, they demand the inclusion, in the charterparty, of a specific clause shifting the risk of such loss. We will deal therein below with one of the most commonly used forms of such a clause namely – “Time lost waiting for a berth clause” against broader picture of current English jurisdiction.
The article presents reviews of the European Union regulation on reporting formalities for ships entering the EU ports. It also analyses IMO regulation concerning that matter. Finally, the author exposes the differences between both legal systems and weaknesses of the solutions adopted. In the second part of the article the author discusses the Polish way of the reporting formalities system’s implementation. On the basis of a legal analysis as well as practice of the maritime authorities in Poland, the author finds that the Polish regulations seem to be exemplary.
There is a growing interest in new transportation routes that combine benefits of shorter distances, cost-effective transits and routes not troubled by maritime security concerns. The Northwest Passage offers a package of routes through the Canadian maritime zone; it is 9,000 km shorter than the Panama Canal route and 17,000 km shorter than the Cape Horn route. The Northern Sea Route shortens a Hamburg-Yokohama voyage by 4,800 miles, in comparison with the Suez Canal route. The transpolar route, if it materializes with an ice-free Central Arctic Ocean route, would shorten distances even further. Given the increase in regional and international navigation and shipping in the region, it is therefore not surprising that in recent years Arctic States and international bodies focused on the needs of enhanced safety and environmental standards for polar shipping. In addition to the dedicated domestic polar shipping regulation, primarily in Canada and the Russian Federation, the Arctic Council and International Maritime Organization (IMO) have launched important initiatives. The most important is establishing of international rules for ships operating in polar waters – The Polar Code.
The hereby paper discusses the influence of cable length on the SHM systems with the use of vibrating wire dynamic measurements. Vibrating wire sensors are mainly used for measuring stable or slowly changing strains, e.g. system installed on Rędziński Bridge in Wroclaw. From some time applications of these sensors for measuring dynamic deformations are becoming popular. Such tests were conducted on STS Fryderyk Chopin. New solutions generate new problems. In this case: the operational stability of systems exciting wire vibrations. The structure of such sensors and the electric cables length has an essential influence on their operations, what is undertaken in the paper. The subject of investigations constitutes the measuring system based on self-exciting impulse exciter, for which impedance parameters of electric cables and of the vibrating wire sensor were the most essential. The mathematical model of the system, experimental verification of the model as well as the results of theoretical analyses at the application of electric cables of various lengths are presented in the paper.