German Ship Operator Adopts GL Maritime Software on 14,000 TEU Newbuilding

Optimal ship routing is understood to entail reducing voyage costs while maintaining safe passage. However, seaway and weather conditions can pose variables that require modification of the initially planned route. GL Maritime Software’s navigational decision-making support system GL SeaScout 2.0 has now been installed on board Reederei Claus-Peter Offen’s 14,000 TEU newbuilding MSC SAVONA.

GL SeaScout, formerly known as Shipboard Routing Assistance System (SRA), is an integrated onboard system that provides ship’s officers with decision-making support. By combining advanced computations with seaway measurements, wave and weather forecasts, cargo data and other signals, GL SeaScout informs a ship’s officers of how the ship is responding to current conditions. It also shows alarms and warnings for risk of extreme motions including rolling, slamming, and bending moment, and allows the officers to simulate different speeds and courses. In this way it assists officers in choosing a speed and course that are optimised for the individual ship’s hull with respect to the prevailing seaway and loading conditions of the ship.

Onboard the 14,000 TEU container ship, the GL SeaScout installation will interface a state-of-the-art radarbased wave measurement system to provide most accurate results. GL SeaScout will be fully integrated into the ship, so that access to weather forecast and navigational data is established via ship’s network and the GL SeaScout workstation is built into the bridge console.

Captain Piotr M. Kruszewski, commanding the MSC SAVONA on her last voyage, proves on the usefulness and the easy to use of the

GL SeaScout 2.0:

Generally GL SeaScout as a system works very well, giving good assistance with checking vessel’s work against heavy sea. It was found helpful with planning vessel’s speed in area of heavy weather. From my side I have to emphasize that software is simple and user-friendly, which I appreciate very much (we do not need too sophisticated items which require special training and it is not time consuming in handling). Manual is written in simple and understandable way.

This GL SeaScout installation contributes to a Joint Development Project of GL and Korean shipyard DSME (JDP Springing & Whipping) in order to permanently record environmental conditions. Objective of this longterm measurement campaign is to collect data for GL’s ongoing rule development. In addition, the information will be used by FutureShip, a GL company, for validation of numerical simulation methods with respect to whipping and springing phenomena.

[mappress]

Source: gl-maritime-software, August 29, 2011;