AWT Weather Routing/Routeing: Applied Weather Technology

AWT Customer SCF Unicom Averts Heavy Weather Damage

by Dave Callicott

What David Sharp said to me recently might rank as one of my all-time favorite quotes from a customer. He commented, “We used to measure heavy weather damage in terms of hundreds of thousands of dollars and the number of days our ships spent being repaired, now we measure it in the tens of dollars and number of lost lifebuoys.”

David is HSSE (health, safety, security and environmental) team manager for SCF Unicom Management Services (Cyprus) Ltd., and he achieved results in the reduction of heavy weather damage to SCF Unicom’s fleet in part by adopting AWT’s BVS Marine Voyage Optimization Software.

As David tells the story, it used to be that during a serious winter, SCF Unicom might have had three or four ships suffering from heavy weather damage – everything from decimation of bulwarks to loss of expensive deck equipment to damage to the decks themselves. With occurrences of heavy weather damage costing approximately $100,000 per incident and taking ships out of commission, causing them to lose valuable time at sea and revenue, the stakes were high for figuring out a way to prevent heavy weather damage to SCF Unicom’s fleet.

At the time – and this was back in the late 90s – David was a marine manager responsible for safe navigation of SCF Unicom’s ships, a responsibility he continues to hold today. He wanted a visual way for the ships’ Masters and crews to receive weather information on board, one that was easy to understand with functions that allowed ship managers to perform routing operations. The weather information the Masters and crews had been receiving was not visual, up-to-date or easy to understand – it consisted of poor quality fax transmissions of weather charts.

But when David initially tried to implement graphical weather software to improve the situation, he met with some resistance. “It was quite a battle to say ‘It’s a new era. It’s a new age.’ Fortunately the management and owners of SCF Unicom were receptive to new ideas to try to resolve problems efficiently and easily.”

After first adopting BVS in 1999 as part of a trial on three ships, SCF Unicom observed that the onboard software was helping its Masters to reduce heavy weather damage to those ships. The company then quickly expanded use of BVS to approximately 17 ships within its managed fleet, and after positive feedback from Masters, now routinely deploys BVS to all new vessels. BVS is now deployed on more than 70 SCF Unicom vessels.

According to SCF Unicom, BVS helps the company reduce costs and delays spent in dry dock for repairs from heavy weather damage. Since 2001 Unicom has not suffered any serious structural damages due to heavy weather encounters. Damages have been mostly limited to minor fittings and fixtures.

“We have trialed other companies’ weather data, and in my opinion the onboard software we have from AWT is the most visually easy to understand and follow,” said Sharp. “Our crews are very comfortable using it to avoid conditions that could cause heavy weather damage.”

SCF Unicom says that its ship Masters also use BVS to examine ways to minimize fuel consumption and therefore carbon emissions, and to select the most time- and fuel-efficient routes to their destinations. Also, when there are weather systems that cause concern for their Masters and operations teams, they take advantage of AWT’s weather routing services to ensure crew, vessel and cargo safety.

Want to discover what AWT could do to help your Masters and crew steer clear of heavy weather damage? More information is available at http://www.awtworldwide.com/products/bon-voyage-system.asp.