Dover to install QuaySailor

Dover Harbour Board is evaluating the installation of an automated mooring system at two new ferry berths it is building in its Eastern Docks. The UK port has commissioned Mooring Systems, the New Zealand-based developer of the automated QuaySailor vacuum mooring design, to produce working drawings for an initial

installation.

If the Harbour Board?s evaluation of these drawings is positive it will install a first Series 80 unit in Dover by December this year. The port?s three roro patrons, P&O Ferries, SeaFrance and Norfolk Line, have agreed to allow trials using their ships. Mooring Systems says the Harbour Board will contemplate the supply of five more units following the trials ? giving three per berth. The evaluation has the potential to lead to a contract for the system worth over $5 million.

Dover?s £37 million ($59.2 million) construction of two new berths, numbered eight and nine, has been driven by an expectation of increased ferry traffic through the port. The berths are separated by a finger pier and are designed to accommodate ferries up to 32m beam and 200m in length. The pier can accommodate up to eight of Mooring System?s Series 80 units ? four per berth (next generation cross-Channel ferries will require an extra unit, says the port).

The QuaySailor Series 80 has an 80t ship mooring capacity. The system is designed to help effect quick port turnarounds without the need for, nor dangers of, quay personnel handling mooring ropes. Ships require no special equipment for the system?s operation.

“We like the concept of the system, especially the way it is claimed to be impossible to overload it in extreme conditions,” says a spokesman for the Harbour Board, who adds that the company was also impressed with the responsiveness and approach of Mooring Systems during the tender process.

“Dover is a fantastic opportunity,” says Peter Montgomery, managing director of Mooring Systems. “As Dover?s sea and weather conditions are quite harsh, a successful installation will mean that our systems could be installed practically anywhere.”

He adds that the company is confident of securing a $2.8 million sale of eight Series 40 QuaySailor units to an Australian concern in the near future.

Electromagnets

This success for the vacuum-based system is paralleled by other automated mooring systems, which are winning attention from large ports attracted by the potential to reduce labour costs and increase safety. A recent article in the scientific journal New Scientist, for example, has highlighted an interest from the city of Rotterdam?s engineering bureau in the use of electromagnets to moor ships at the port of Rotterdam. A development team at Holland?s Delft University of Technology has developed electromagnets that don?t interfere with electronic equipment or cargo by penetrating too far into the ship. The port is preparing to test a prototype later this year, although what exactly this will involve is unclear.

Each electromagnet, including power supply, will cost about 810,000, says Martin Verweij at the university. About 52 of the 750w electromagnets would be needed to secure a 400m post-panamax containership, he says, giving energy costs over the 10-year life cycle of the magnets of about 8140,000. The total cost of such an installation over 10 years is 8660,000. The development team has calculated this gives a saving of a factor of eight over traditional rope and manpower mooring methods.