Maritime Forum

Jointly Organised by
The Joint Branch of the RINA and the IMarEST (Singapore)
Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers Singapore
and
Centre for Offshore Research & Engineering (CORE), NUS
“Contributions of Safety Management to Ship Stability”
By Professor Chengi Kuo
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

The evening lecture started on an introductory note on the panel members of the
maritime community. The show of presents by all distinguish guests for this event has
shed a glimmer of sparkle
into the importance of
such technical talks
within the maritime
industry. The Chairman
of The Joint Branch of
the RINA and the
IMarEST (Singapore)
gave the opening address
and formally introduce
the panel members with
the Panel Chairman, Mr
David Chin of the
Singapore Maritime
Foundation and the
members Mr Wong Bheet Huan of Ezra Holdings Ltd, Mr Christopher Jones of Island
Shipbrokers Pte Ltd, Mr Iain Beange of North of England P & I Clubs and Mr Tan Cheng
Hui of Keppel Singmarine Pte Ltd.

Professor Chengi Kuo, begins the talk with a rather mellow approached by giving
a short history of the
development of the study
of ship stability from
metacentre and the GZ
curve. Many of which the
calculations are iterative
and he shared his
experience of doing all
the calculations and
iterations by hand, before
the introduction of
computers. Growing level
of communications and
regular international exchanges enforces the discussions about ship stability which is of
great importance to the safety of ships, their passengers and crew as well as the possible
effects on the marine
environment. From the
first of such panel
meetings in 1975, held in
Glasgow to the most
recent meeting in St
Petersburg in 2009. The
physical concept of ship
stability is well
appreciated by everybody
and in the simplest form
it relates to whether a
ship will float upright or
upside down. However, it
is extremely difficult to translate this phenomenon into scientific formulation that takes
into account fully the dynamics of ships operating in seaways. This is due to the lack of
proper stability definition for ships operating in random sea.

On the issue of computer simulation, Professor Kuo iterated and stressed that all
computer programs must be verified by independent methods which are based on
different formulas. Insufficient attention was given to the physical interpretation of
computer results, for example, comparing computer solutions to double digital decimal
places. He warned the risk in total or blind faith in computer based outputs or controlled
devices.

“Safety is not absolute” more often than not, drivers of advancement in safety
management are through disasters, for example the Piper Alpha incident. The case for
ship stability to benefit from advances in safety management is made with emphasis on
the non absolute nature of ship stability.

Professor Kuo,
introduced The Generic
Management System
Circuit (GMSC) which is a
specific safety management
technique. He explained
the different stages of
system such as starting
from Define, Organize,
Implement, Measure,
Review and back to the
Define stage as a complete
cycle. The lecture ends with
several recommendations concerning areas where research is needed. The need to test the
practical applicability of proposed ship stability definition in conjunction with modern
methods, the need to invest in education to educate the need to change the mindset of the
benefits of from safety management, and the Interactive Knowledge & Experience
Sharing Teaching Approach (IKEST).

The panel gathered again at the last part of the technical talk for the final Q and A
session, which the audience
brought up several issues on
how to determine the correct
things to do during emergency,
for example, to pump in or to
pump out? Different intuitive
actions verses proper actions
taken. The session adjourned
with the ending note from the
Joint Branch Chairman and
presentation of appreciation
plaques and momentos to the
guests speaker and panel members. - By Joseph Lee.