The main objective of the authors of the present document and of the OCIMF was to provide the maritime shipping industry, particularly tanker sector of it, with the professional recommendations and guidance relating to the fittings installed on the tanker vessels for working with the tugs.

With the introduction of the more and more powerful tugboats, it is now becoming clear than the incompatibilities between the forces that are exerted by the fittings and the tug, can put the safety of the people on board in danger. It can also affect the security of the connections made for towing, resulting in the damage to the associated equipment on both vessels.

That is why it is critically important to ensure that the fittings are duly sized and placed; due attention shall also be paid to their reinforcement and identification. The recommendations provided in this compact volume, when thoroughly understood and followed, will promote in the increased effectiveness and safety of the operations.

Note that the volume contains minimum requirements to be met and shall be taken into consideration by both the tanker operators and crews of the tugboats, as well as the shipbuilders and designers, port authorities, pilots and all other parties involved.

Current LNG transportation practice provides for pressure relief systems, designed with credit for the tank's insulation in order to to prevent gas cargo pressurization due to boil-off and fire, as per IMO IGC Code 8.5. However, it is uncertain to what extent any insulation degradation, in a fire situation, is taken into account in the design of PRV systems.

As foam plastic insulation materials are subject to possible melting, degradation and/or ignition at temperatures lower than might be achieved during such fire exposure, there is concern that the PRV systems may not be capable of relieving the vapor flows that would result from the increased boil-off due to partial or total insulation failure. This SIGTTO publication covers following matters - the origins of the IGC Code, fire scenarios, LNG carrier pressure relief systems, simplified reapplication of the Code for loss of insulation, heat transfer into the tank; time based heat transfer, response of insulation materials to heat, and others.

This is quite useful document providing necessary updates required to be taken into account to organize the transportation, storage and handling of the LNG cargoes in a safe way.

The handling and piloting of vessel is something about the individual understandings of the people, based on their practical knowledge. This book written by professional Captain shall be used as a very useful addition to the other materials covering this subject. The text of the publication is remarkably easy to understand and in some cases has been delivered in a form of anecdotes, to make reading more pleasant.

However, the contents of the volume will be useful even for the professional mariners as going through it will let them refresh their knowledge and skills that they might have forgotten. Of course, no one can learn the experience from the book and it is mainly the outcome of the years of doing things either right or wrong – what you do is that you try to avoid repeating the mistakes and you do your best to remember what was done right.

There are many chapters in this book and the author will take the readers from the basic information of handling vessels, through all technical aspects, covering literally everything they should be aware of, up to and including the responsibilities of the pilot related to the vessel and to the port authorities. We recommend this publication to all mariners and students due to the comprehensiveness of coverage and reader-friendliness.

A constantly increasing number of the merchant vessels find themselves chartered to operation in Arctic waters, creating a real and significant demand for the newly constructed ice-classed vessels. Subject requirement is commonly applicable to the vessels that operate in the low temperatures or in the iced waters, with their crew duly trained to man such sort of vessels, and it has already brought about by numerous factors including likelihood of the shipping trade routes that are opening up in the Arctic region, coming on-stream of the terminals in northern regions, and a significant increase in cruise traffic in Arctic region.

All above mentioned factors are directly contributing to the requirements for the ship crews to have access to all required and available technical knowledge from the ice pilots and navigators. Operating a vessel in iced sea required higher standards of training combined with the practical experience. This combination will allow the required development of the skills and professional knowledge and proper understanding in order to competently and efficiently manage the safe passage of the vessel.

Safe navigation of the vessel in ice comes as a result of the experience in the winter navigation combined with the ability of the crew to perform the proper interpretation of the available reports and select the best route on the basis of the behavior and characteristics of the ice...

Every mariner should bear in mind the enormous number of vessels sailing the world’s oceans today when considering the anchors and the associated anchor work. In the past the anchors, together with their auxiliary equipment and arrangements, used to be designed for the vessels of relatively small size and tonnage. They were considered adequate to comply with the specifications in terms of the bottom and weather conditions.

Nowadays, the vessels are of considerably larger size; however, the expectations set for the anchor equipment are more or less same. But for the really big vessels this is not possible and that is why the seamanship methods shall be re-considered. We shall always note that the anchors are there to temporary hold the vessel in position awaiting pilot or berth availability. This book will provide all information needed to arrange the anchor operations in safe and effective manner.

The author has covered such important areas as the types of the ship anchors, anchor chains and windlasses, forcesand holding powers, anchorages including positioning and maneuverability, responsibilities etc. The separate chapter is devoted to the anchoring and mooring methods. Moreover, there is another chapter covering only the large sized vessels. The other items addressed include after-anchoring activities, handling-off anchors, maintenance of the ground tackle, and others.

This presentation by SIGTTO applies to the valves installed on board liquid petroleum gas vessels, but it can provide guidance to such valves on LPG terminals, as well. It is intended to serve as a supplemental guide to be used together with the relevant standards and codes for LPG valves and shall not override them.

In this book such an important issues as valve design, specific design consideration for ESD (emergency shutdown) valves, valve testing, material requirements and codes and standards, have been addressed. The publication is mostly intended to provide necessary technical guidance to the designers and/or operators on the applicable general requirements for valves for LPG service, designed for an operating temperature ranging between -55 and +80 degrees Celsius.

Though the document was specifically developed to apply to LPG vessels, the provisions contained in it may be equally applied throughout the liquefied petroleum gas industry. Note, however, that this paper shall not override any national/international standards or codes. The appendix at the last part of the document provides considerations to be taken into account during the periods of construction and maintenance.

The Convert 4.1 is quite simple engineering converter. It does not need any installation on your computer. This converter free and very easy to use. The program can convert the most popular units of length, temperature, time, speed, force, mass, density, and many others.

The users may even create their own units and conversion rates. The program will work on all MS Windows systems including the latest ones. Since the program is very user-friendly and does not require any specific skills, we may recommend it to all people involved in any engineering activities, starting from the students of different areas of engineering and up to the professional practicing engineers and all other technical people whose day-to-day learning or working activities require frequent conversion of the above mentioned units.

Here is the animated cursor scheme which can be used on any personal computer by anyone who loves sea life.

The set of cursors presented to your attention includes following ones - a sailboat, boats keep out, brass dividers, inflatable life jacket, fluxgate compass, mobile VHF, parallel rule, sea binoculars, sextant, the lighthouse, VHF, winch, wind indicator, wing on wing, as well as the yachtsman's anchor.

This small software pack will let you get your desktop or laptop easily personalized so that you enjoy having a nice cursor instead of a standard electronic arrow.