Stena Carron protest in Shetland - Greenpeace Esperanza

[bug]

She is a DP 3 vessel, this means she has 3 levels of redundancy .

Meaning that they can lose an engine room, several thrusters ( she has 6 azi-pod thrusters), one of the dp computers etc, etc and she will still maintain her position.

And in the extremely unlikely event of losing all power, she does have another anchor with no concerned environmentalists attached.

Plus an array of support vessels which include the 2 lerwick harbour tugs.

 

There is more chance of me winning the lottery tonight than this drill ship going ashore......

I bought 6 lines, so here's hoping!

 

You make a very salient point GB-c - the very fact that this vessel is specifically designed to hold station whilst attached to a deepwater well in the North Atlantic makes it highly unlikely that a mere gale would drive her ashore on Bressay. The Master of the SC should invite GP onboard for a cup of coffee and some cake - offer them much more comfortable free bed and board for a month and of course make damn sure the cordial hospitality is videoed by Malcolm Younger et al.

[Ghostrider]

And in the extremely unlikely event of losing all power, she does have another anchor with no concerned environmentalists attached.

Plus an array of support vessels which include the 2 lerwick harbour tugs.

 

There is more chance of me winning the lottery tonight than this drill ship going ashore......

I bought 6 lines, so here's hoping!

 

Things can and do go tragically wrong all too often. Let's not forget we're approaching the time of year there was an incident very close by which ended in the tragic death of a member of the rescue services. There was plenty of towing power in Lerwick Harbour at that time too. I suspect the Knab and Kebister putting a line on this hulk of a vessel to keep her off the rocks in the face of a force 12 might not have the effect you dream of.

 

The Stena Carron is 97,000 tonnes deadweight. The Braer was 89,730 tonnes deadweight, and we all remember how well she responded to a tow in heavy weather. If she came to be in a position of not being able to manuevere herself from where she is in more than F 6-8 onshore, I have grave doubts any amount of towing power is going to succeed in doing much with her, unless they have all the good luck they could possibly have thrown in as well.

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

Yes Ghostie, you are perfectly correct. With the present weather forecast, the prudent master would wish to relocate to a more sheltered location, regardless of the array of propulsion systems at his disposal.

And in order to move his vessel in choppy sea conditions he would have to bring his anchors home.

He will be having a lot of disscusions with his company ashore, as they will be with their lawyers.

I am reasonably sure they will devise a method to cut them free safely within a day or two.

This is after all a state of the art drill ship, capable of drilling in mid ocean depths of 10,000ft in most weather conditions.

To safely remove a 500kg wieght hanging on their anchor chain will be baby-poo compared to the work they regularily undertake.

 

Lets not get hysterical about it ending in disaster just yet!

 

And muppet, no you dont understand me.

Just because I have been polite in my description of these eco-warriors does not mean I agree with their actions.

I only wish they would get this alternative energy on the market that they keep going on about?

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

This vessels main propulsion consist's of 6 diesel-electric generators, located most probably in 3 different engine rooms fully fire protected from each other. They deliver power to the 6 azimuth (360 degree rotational propellors) power units on her bottom. It can do this in every configaration and they would only need one engine room and one or two thrusters to move like a conventional ship.

This is a very different beast from the old braer with one main engine, a shaft prop and a rudder.

And if I remember correctly she was never under tow at any time during that disaster?

[Ghostrider]

Just because I have been polite in my description of these eco-warriors does not mean I agree with their actions.

I only wish they would get this alternative energy on the market that they keep going on about?

 

A very valid point. Eco-warrior-ing is fine and well, but Greenpeace have been at it for over 30 years, and in that time I'm struggling and failing to think of any constructive proposals or even suggestions they've made of how to improve things.

 

Any damn fool can stand and shout "dunna do yun" like they have made a career of, it takes the wise man to table workable viable alternatives.

 

Its been said often enough that if the mind power and resources of the criminally intent were channeled towards the constructive instead of the destructive, how much better a place the world could be. As I see it, the same applies to Greenpeace, if the combined brainpower of their membership coupled with the resources they can command were put towards developing suitable alternatives, protest would be un-necessary, as any viable workable alternative(s) to oil would sell themselves and automatically reduce the demand for oil.

 

Tactics that are effective against luxury end products, such as fur bred or trapped for fashion products alone, are idiotic against raw materials that provide so much of what is basic and necessary in what society has evolved in to today. Greenpeace need to get in to the 21st Century if they want to be taken seriously, physically blocking access was fine and well to stop whoever buying so many dead animals to wear as a fashion statement or to dump waste in certain places. For everyday essentials its simply laughable, especially when they're using so many of the products openly themselves. Not only the fuel they're burning, but the very ropes that are allowing they to do what they're doing, and the clothes on their backs, that without hypothermia would have seen them all slipped off there by now, are derivatives of the oil they're trying to force the rest of us to abandon.

[Baron Farkoff]

I heard that it costs 5 million pounds per day to hire the carron.if GP's actions are proved illegal this could have serious consequences,aside from the potential human cost. I wonder just how sure they are that this is lawful. Could turn out to be a very expensive camping trip.

[Ghostrider]

This vessels main propulsion consist's of 6 diesel-electric generators, located most probably in 3 different engine rooms fully fire protected from each other. They deliver power to the 6 azimuth (360 degree rotational propellors) power units on her bottom. It can do this in every configaration and they would only need one engine room and one or two thrusters to move like a conventional ship.

This is a very different beast from the old braer with one main engine, a shaft prop and a rudder.

And if I remember correctly she was never under tow at any time during that disaster?

 

I would imagine a set up like this relies heavily on computers to function, hence the weak points of the system are neither the power nor propulsion units, but the control system. No doubt there are back up systems, failsafe's and whatnot built in to it, but like the Titanic was not so "unsinkable" as her fans made out, no system can be considered totally foolproof.

 

I would imagine the greatest risk is not so much from total control failure, but from a partial failure or malfunction which leaves the control system in a partially disabled, unpredictable and imprecise state.

[bug]

^ I would not worry about loss of control. If (and it's a very big if) all the ships systems broke down and a gale was ensuing and the lives of 100+ souls onboard the vessel were at any risk whatsoever then the Master would quite justifiably drop all anchors if that was what was required. No doubt the GP campers are fully aware of this and as such they have made their choice.

[mate64]

This silliness could surely be ended if the authorities really wanted. One method would be to lower the protesters slowly, say a yard per hour. They would have to abandon pod. No one would get hurt though maybe a touch damp. Best done at night to cut the publicity.

 

Taking GP’s side for a moment, if this episode makes the oil industry just one tiny bit more careful to avoid a disaster then one could argue some good has come of it.

[deardron]

I heard that it costs 5 million pounds per day to hire the carron.if GP's actions are proved illegal this could have serious consequences,aside from the potential human cost. I wonder just how sure they are that this is lawful. Could turn out to be a very expensive camping trip.

But does it make sense to sue Greenpeace? Has anyone tried this so far? Their actions make believe they don't bother much about such vanities.

[Muppet]

And muppet, no you dont understand me.

Just because I have been polite in my description of these eco-warriors does not mean I agree with their actions.

 

In which case please accept my apologies.

 

I can not however apologise for how I refer to these numpties. I just can not find it in me to be as charitable as your good self in how I refer to them.

 

Ghostrider, as always you speak a lot of sense.

[whalsa]

Taking GP’s side for a moment, if this episode makes the oil industry just one tiny bit more careful to avoid a disaster then one could argue some good has come of it.

 

Im pretty sure that after the Gulf of Mexico disaster any oil company carrying out deep water operations is taking the utmost care to avoid disaster because of the staggering costs and bad publicity BP has suffered, not to mention the environmental damage.

 

That leads me to an interesting thought, I wonder if Chevron had a similar disaster near British shores if there would be as much anti-american feeling here as the yanks have displayed anti-british against BP?

[Spinner72]

Just because I have been polite in my description of these eco-warriors does not mean I agree with their actions.

I only wish they would get this alternative energy on the market that they keep going on about?

 

A very valid point. Eco-warrior-ing is fine and well, but Greenpeace have been at it for over 30 years, and in that time I'm struggling and failing to think of any constructive proposals or even suggestions they've made of how to improve things.

 

Any damn fool can stand and shout "dunna do yun" like they have made a career of, it takes the wise man to table workable viable alternatives.

 

Exactly. I canna find it just now but I remember seeing an interview a few years back when some bigwig GP activist was being questioned as to why they didnt do anything in the fight to keep the first modern generation of Electric Cars (see General Motors EV1 for example.) These were proven to work, were practical, and yet were all crushed for no apparent reason along with all the Toyota Rav4 EV's and the Honda EV+.

 

They did nothing, and didnt have an answer as to why.

 

The simple fact is that are protesters. They don't care a hoot about the cause, they just want to protest. As I said before, they risk lives and major environmental disasters at every possible opportunity. They don't care if how many people and animals die, they just wat to be on TV saying "we told you so" when it happens.

[Kavi Ugl]

And they'll never be content. Even if the world did "go beyond oil" GP would still be greeting and protesting about something.

 

They're at best troublemakers and at worst criminals(literally) - just like Sea Shepherd and they both do it in the name of "conservation".

 

Lower the anchor head deep enough i.e till the pod is just skimming the water so that when they cut all the lines and pod off it just falls into the sea and doesn't clatter against the anchor head.

[Njugle]

Just to add to the valued realism that Gorgo is contributing, without in any ways supporting GP:

 

Gorgo is right about the level of redundancy on this ship, but for those who think it would be a good idea to lower the anchor chains slowly to sea level, the same level of control that the rest of the ship has is unlikely to extend to her anchor winch brakes, if indeed she has any. Lowering the chains in a controlled manner would be pretty risky from a manslaughter point of view, otherwise they'd have done it already. I'd reckon GP would be aware of this before attaching themselves to them. Crafty beggars.

 

Tinks du Gorgo?