Interferry report: Four decades of ferries

The global industry body for the ferry industry, Interferry, held its annual conference in Copenhagen, Denmark from 5-7 October. The event marked four decades of the organisation and featured sessions on a wide variety of topical issues.

Opening the conference on Monday 5 October, outgoing Interferry president John Steen-Mikkelsen said: “The industry is getting more influential and the way it has dealt with many different health and safety issues around the world is something we can be proud of.” Chairman Len Roueche confirmed he would retire in 6 months’ time and the conference honoured his contribution to the industry body over many years.

In his annual report to members, Roueche said: “Following our recent increase in fees, we saw a predicted decline in numbers of around 10%, but at the same time we attracted seven new members.”

It was also announced that while the search process is ongoing for a successor to Roueche, Darrell Bryan, recently retired CEO of Clipper Navigation, will become interim CEO of Interferry.

Steen-Mikkelsen introduced guest speaker Michael Cramer, chair of the committee on Transport and Tourism for the European Parliament. Cramer took the shipping industry to task for its environmental practices, generating much heated debate over the succeeding days of the event from those who felt that his comments had been overly harsh in the context of an industry striving to meet regulatory requirements. Cramer also lamented the failure to establish a common European framework on emissions to date: “The fact that we could not manage to find a common legislation for the whole continent is highly disappointing,” he said.

Guest speaker, Belgian financial author Peter de Keyzer, did not offer much respite as his topic was the outlook for the world economy, from the slowdown in emerging markets to the uncertainty caused by speculation about when and by how much interest rates will begin to rise. He commented that growth would be strongest in Africa over the coming century.

Later that morning, the topic was fire safety, with an informative session delivered by Rear Admiral Cristiano Aliperta and Fabio Croccolo of Rail and Marine Investigations, Italy. In particular, Croccolo’s explanation of the legal aftermath of the 2014 Norman Atlantic fire investigation offered delegates insights into the investigation, which is yet to reach its conclusion. The ro-ro deck on which the fire started is a major focus of the investigation, with possible causes of the blaze including unauthorised use of gas or flammable cooking liquids on the deck. “It has been difficult to retrieve data from the VDR, which was not able to withstand severe stress,” said Croccolo, adding that this was potentially a wider problem with voice data recorders on ships. He said the final report would be released before Christmas.

Staying with the lessons to be learned from the Norman Atlantic fire, deck design and fire systems were the focus of a presentation by Anders Tosseviken of DNV GL. In particular, he considered the effectiveness of water mist systems in extinguishing fires on open ro-ro decks, recommending decentralised decision making regarding actions to take on fire outbreak. “The window of opportunity is normally less than 15 minutes to detect fire and release the deluge,” he warned.

The role of ferry operators in border defence was addressed by Tim Reardon of the UK Chamber of Shipping. He noted that increasingly stringent border controls at ferry ports followed airport trends, even though ferry travel was markedly different, with most passengers travelling in groups in vehicles. “Border control is a choke on ferry operators, with more complex controls and a falling standard of service,” said Reardon.

A session on innovation raised spirits on Monday afternoon, with Oskar Levander of Rolls-Royce Marine introducing a remote-controlled ship concept that is currently in development. “The technology we need is there but we still need to make marine solutions,” said Levander, who confirmed that there is flag state interest in the company’s ideas for remote-controlled vessels.

The theme of innovation was continued by Anders Hansen of OSK Ship-Tech, who discussed the rise of 3D printing and how it is starting to become relevant in the shipping world, with easier prototyping available and more production expected to be done locally thanks to the 3D technology.

The future of fast ferries was discussed by veterans of the field, Henk Gunstra of Damen Netherlands, Robert Clifford of Incat and James Bennett of Austal. Clifford and Bennett agreed that the fast-ferry concept still had plenty of life in it yet from an Australian perspective, with orders strengthening in recent months. Gunstra was slightly less bullish, remarking: “I think there is a future but I don’t know how it will look.” New technologies to make fast ferries lighter were discussed. “The trick is not to go faster, but to go lighter,” said Clifford. Bennett concurred, saying Austal was keen “to chase the kilos out of the ship wherever we can.” Carbon composite designs were discussed for their benefits in this regard.

The chartering of ferries (and the legal obligations of each party to charter contracts) was the subject of a presentation by Robert Alstrom of Stena RoRo, who outlined BIMCO’s Charter Party for Ropax Trade. Wrapping up Monday’s events, Lars Sall of Kosan Crisplant explained how his company assists operators with the engineering and design of solutions for LNG bunkering.

On Tuesday, environmental regulations were again in the spotlight in a session featuring Poul Woodall of DFDS, Patrick Verhoeven of ECSA, the UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency’s Leanne Page, and Christian Breinholt of the Danish Maritime Authority. Woodall said the regulatory environment was often unhelpful to ferry operators, with different departments disagreeing on the effectiveness of targets. Verhoeven said lack of agreement on what environmental solutions were acceptable made life tough for operators: “Regulatory uncertainty means that people have invested in good faith, while another department down the hallway says ‘We’re not sure that’s allowed’.” Page said she did not believe there needed to be a confrontation between regulators and operators, while Breinholt argued that “SOx has fallen by 50-60% since January. So the regulation works.”

A comprehensive discussion of innovative electric ferry concepts took place next, with Cees de Waal of Netherlands-based TESO explaining the company’s hybrid Texelstroom ferry with input from Christian Kaemmerer of Lloyd’s Register in the UK. This was followed by an overview of the Greek fully electric E-Ferry concept by Dr Eliza Gagatsi of the Hellenic Institute of Transport. Finally, Ulf Tudem of SES Europe talked about a new zero-emission electric commuter ferry design his company is involved with.

Fire safety was revisited in a panel discussion tackling emergency evacuation procedures. Paul Nichols of Lloyd’s Register delivered an update on the EU-funded LYNCEUS project that aims to facilitate location of people both onboard and in the water during emergencies.

Roberto Javier Herbon told delegates about the benefits of lightweight passive fire protection systems, and Paolo Moretti of RINA in Italy outlined a major ferry safety initiative the classification society is pioneering.

Further technical challenges were elucidated by participants in the afternoon’s ‘Innovation – Part 2’ session. Tommy Hertzberg of SP Technical Research Institute in Sweden offered attendees more detail on the technology behind lightweight composites and their potential to replace steel in shipbuilding.

Next, Tuomas Riski of Norspower, Finland, told attendees how the company’s Rotor Sail Solution is offering savings to operators by providing auxiliary wind propulsion. The afternoon’s innovations under study concluded with Bruno Boukaert of Hull Vane in the Netherlands explaining how this patented device that resembles a hydrofoil-type addition to the ship can generate lift force and reduce wavemaking resistance, thus bringing savings to operators. The conference concluded with a look at the last 40 years in the ferry industry, presented by veteran journalist Michael Grey.

The new president of Interferry, Chet Pastrana of Archipelago Philippine Ferries, addressed the audience and shared greetings to the industry body from the Government of the Philippines. The 2016 Interferry Conference will take place next October in Manila.