COS Weekly Newsletter - Friday, 17 June 2022

CN has reported that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which represents approximately 750 employees in Canada, has given a 72-hour notice of its intention to strike commencing Saturday, June 18 at 11:00am EST.  CN remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached without a labour disruption and indicated that in the event of a strike, they are prepared to implement an operational contingency plan which would ensure a normal level of continued safe operations as long as required.

A report by the Clear Seas Centre for Responsible Marine Shipping (Clear Seas) provides an overview of the threat climate change poses to Canada’s maritime environment. While many studies address the mitigation of the effects of climate change, the study on Climate Change Vulnerability of the Canadian Maritime Environment goes further and identifies a range of strategies to help adapt to the challenge of the climate crisis.  The study presents real-world perspectives and maps out practical adaptation strategies to manage the effects of a changing climate and will inform Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy that should support pro-active decision-making and planning efforts for safe and sustainable waterways undertaken by the Canadian Coast Guard and other governmental departments, port authorities, industry stakeholders, Indigenous and coastal communities, and others.. Read the report: https://bit.ly/3xkdT1T

Wärtsilä Voyage, part of the technology group Wärtsilä, has announced the acquisition of PortLink Global, a global port solutions company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The move will speed Wärtsilä Voyage along its path towards creating an end-to-end connected maritime ecosystem in which intelligent port logistics solutions play a nodal role. PortLink and Wärtsilä Voyage have proven to be formidable strategic partners in the past – successfully collaborating on projects including the co-development of a next-generation Port Management Information System (PMIS) for the largest Mediterranean and African port, Tanger Med, the Callao Port Authority (Peru) modernization project, and the delivery of Brazil’s first Smart Port Solution at Porto do Acu. This collaboration will help connect the dots across the entire ecosystem. The holistic approach will enable better ship-to-shore coordination — optimizing routes and vessel speed based on real-time weather and port readiness information, which can result in reductions in fuel consumption and emissions.

The Achieve Anything Foundation invites women and girls to join the Royal Canadian Navy for a day sail on a warship to experience the day in the life of a sailor on Monday, July 4th.  Participants will be given an incredible hands-on experience of a day in the life of Royal Canadian Navy personnel on board an active duty warship! See and experience the various ship duty stations, crew quarters & mess, operational equipment; RCAF joint search and rescue demonstration, ship firefighting simulation, and scenario demonstrations of the warship’s impressive manoeuvring capabilities. The minimum age requirement is 12 years, no maximum age. Apply at https://achieveanything.ca/thisisyou.html.

 

The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, has announced a new request for proposals to support the development of propulsion improving devices, specifically aimed at reducing underwater noise generated by propellers. The reduction of underwater promotes the protection and recovery of Canada’s endangered whale species as acoustic disturbances can affect their ability to find prey, navigate effectively, and communicate with each other, while also creating stress.

Projects will be funded through Transport Canada’s Quiet Vessel Initiative, which is testing the most promising technologies, vessel designs, retrofits and operational practices to make vessels quieter, reducing the impacts of underwater noise on vulnerable marine mammals, like the Southern Resident killer whale.  The deadline for bid submissions is July 28, 2022, and all projects are to be completed by March 31, 2024.

President Joe Biden has signed into law the bipartisan bill following passage of the legislation by the House of Representatives earlier this week by a vote of 369-42.  The enactment of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act sets in motion a series of new rules and regulations regarding ocean carrier practices that the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) must implement over the course of the next year.  The Act allows FMC to launch probes of ocean common carriers' business practices and to apply enforcement measures, requires ocean common carriers to report to the FMC "total import/export tonnage" each calendar quarter, and would bar ocean carriers from unreasonably declining opportunities for US exports under new rules to be determined by the FMC.

The value of rights owned by the Queen’s property company to exploit the seabed around Britain’s coastline has swelled to £5bn after a record-breaking auction of plots for offshore windfarms. The estate’s first auction of its seabed licences in a decade helped to drive up the value of the portfolio. The estate awarded licences for six offshore windfarms off the coast of England and Wales, which could generate up to £9bn over the next 10 years. The successful bidders included Germany’s RWE Renewables, which won two licences at Dogger Bank, off the Yorkshire coast, and two from a consortium which includes the oil company BP, which is also investing in renewable energy.

On June 2nd Havila Kystruten's passenger ship, Havila Castor, proved it could sail in and out of the Geiranger fjord silently with zero-emission with help from the largest battery pack installed onboard a commercial vessel.

The entire trip from the city of Ålesund and back took 9 hours where more than three hours were on battery only. Feedback from Havila technical personnel on board was that the battery performed beyond expectations. After three hours on battery only, they had close to 40% of the battery capacity left which means four hours is no problem.

Corvus Energy's energy storage systems along with all other environmental technologies on the ship reduce CO2 emissions by around 30% and NOx emissions by 90%. With the gradual blending of biogas, emissions of CO2 will be reduced to 50% in 2023 and 80% in 2024.

Havila Castor is one out of four identical ships built for Havila Kystruten to operate on the coastal route between Bergen and Kirkenes in the North of Norway. The full roundtrip takes 11 days and is an epic journey through some of the most scenic and unspoiled nature. Corvus has delivered a complete 6.1 MWh Orca battery system for each of the vessels.

The propulsion system onboard all four sister vessels are also prepared for the installation of next-generation technology using hydrogen and fuel cells by HAV Hydrogen

Havila Capella, Castor`s identical sister ship, won “the Next Generation Ship Award” during Nor-Shipping in Oslo earlier this year due to its groundbreaking design. Read about the 7 reasons why here.

Built 2021
Passengers: 640
Cabins: 170
Length: 124 m
Beam: 22 m