Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Car Transporter

#ShipGrounding – Car-transporter Hoegh Osaka was being held east of its grounding at Alpha Anchorage, between East Cowes and Lee-on-the-Solent, reports BBC News.

The cargo ship that has been stricken in the Solent since Saturday as previously reported on Afloat.ie, is being secured overnight after freeing itself from the sandbank.

Hoegh Osaka had run aground on Bramble Bank on Saturday.

It "refloated" itself unexpectedly just before 14:00 GMT due to the tide and water being pumped out of the ship.

The vessel was towed two miles east in the Solent and will be held by two tugs until Thursday for a full assessment by salvage company Svitzer.

For much more on this story including photos, click HERE

Published in Rescue

#Rescue - An investigation has begun into why the car transporter Hoegh Osaka which as previously reported, ran aground in the Solent last Saturday started to list shortly after departing the Port of Southampton.

According to the BBC, the Hoegh Osaka was deliberately run aground off the Isle of Wight on Saturday evening after it developed problems and started to list, the vessel's owners Hoegh Autoliners said.

The ship is now listing at 52 degrees and the salvage operation has begun.

All 25 crew members were rescued from the ship by the RNLI and coastguard.

Ingar Skiaker, chief executive of Hoegh Autoliners, said: "Our vessel developed a severe list shortly after she left port and the pilot and the master took the decision to save the vessel and its crew by grounding her on the bank.

"This showed great skill and seamanship on behalf of our crew when faced with such challenging circumstances.
"At this stage it is too early to speculate on the cause of the list but we are starting an immediate investigation.

For more on this story, click HERE.

 

Published in Rescue

The Dragon was designed by Johan Anker in 1929 as an entry for a competition run by the Royal Yacht Club of Gothenburg, to find a small keel-boat that could be used for simple weekend cruising among the islands and fjords of the Scandinavian seaboard. The original design had two berths and was ideally suited for cruising in his home waters of Norway. The boat quickly attracted owners and within ten years it had spread all over Europe.

The Dragon's long keel and elegant metre-boat lines remain unchanged, but today Dragons are constructed using the latest technology to make the boat durable and easy to maintain. GRP is the most popular material, but both new and old wooden boats regularly win major competitions while looking as beautiful as any craft afloat. Exotic materials are banned throughout the boat, and strict rules are applied to all areas of construction to avoid sacrificing value for a fractional increase in speed.

The key to the Dragon's enduring appeal lies in the careful development of its rig. Its well-balanced sail plan makes boat handling easy for lightweights, while a controlled process of development has produced one of the most flexible and controllable rigs of any racing boat.