Insurance

Whilst visiting the Lloyd's building the other day, I saw the official ledger for sunken ships, next to the official insurance ledger from 100 years before. On the day we'd visited (31st March) there had been 4 ships lost in 1910; this is equal to the total number lost this month in 2010. Sea safety has come a long way, but we still have much to learn.

More about Lloyd's ledger

Seascout ocean rescue robot: the sad replacement for bikini-clad life guards

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/07/seascout-ocean.php?p=2&cat=undefined#more

The Seascout aquatic rescue robot would be a welcome addition for professionals and wayward tourists in open waters. If someone was in trouble, all they would need to do is activate a GPS tracker and the 'bot would glide out to scoop them into its spacious bay, ferrying them back to safety. It can be operated manually or preprogrammed, and it has internal lighting, a sunroof and a radio system so those inside don't feel claustrophobic or alone. Now all it needs is a pair of frickin' laser beams to battle off sharks and it'll be the hero of the seas.

The Seascout is a design by New Zealander Andre Harley, a student at the Designskolen Kolding University in Denmark. Check out the gallery below for more images of the Seascout, as well as the Lego Mindstorms NXT prototype model Harley made and his model of the rescue vehicle.

Making maps to fight disaster, build economies, Lalitesh Katragadda

http://www.ted.com/talks/lalitesh_katragadda_making_maps_to_fight_disaster_build_economies.html



We dont need to map things to think the world, we can update the maps day after day, from satellite view.

Avoiding death at sea

That's quite an old article, but it still valid today for most unfortunately.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2195847.stm

Friday, 16 August, 2002, 00:21 GMT 01:21 UK

Fishing 'most dangerous job'

Of every 100,000 fishermen, 103 will die at work.

Fishermen and merchant seafarers have by far the most dangerous jobs in Britain, according to experts. A study by researchers at Oxford University has found people working on the sea are up to 50 times more likely to die while working, compared those in other jobs.

Their jobs are much more hazardous than those in the construction or manufacturing industries and also a lot less safe than working for the police, army or fire brigade.

Most dangerous jobs

1. Fishermen 2. Merchant seafarers 3. Aircraft flight deck officers 4. Railway lengthmen 5. Scaffolders 6. Roofers and glaziers 7. Forestry workers 8. Quarry and other mine workers 9. Dockers and stevedores 10. Lorry drivers

The researchers said their findings highlighted the need for urgent action to reduce the risks of working on the sea.

Dr Stephen Roberts analysed official death statistics from a range of different professions between 1976 and 1995.

He found that 103 in every 100,000 fishermen died while working. This is 50 times higher than other workers.

The vast majority of these deaths were from drowning. However, there were also a sizeable proportion of lives lost as a result of injury and asphyxiation.

Figures for merchant seafarers showed 52 per 100,000 died while working.

A large number of these deaths were attributed to trawlers foundering in adverse weather.

However, a significant proportion was linked to collisions and groundings.

Safe jobs

The figures compare to rates of just 2 per 100,000 for the rest of Britain's working population.

The safest jobs, according to the study, are those in the service sector which has death rates of 0.7 per 100,000 workers.

Writing in The Lancet Dr Roberts said his findings backed up previous studies.

He said: "Trawler fishing and merchant seafaring are still the two most dangerous occupations in Britain."

Dr Roberts said the unique challenges of working on the sea were to blame for the high death rates.

"Trawler fishermen have to contend with unique occupational and weather-related hazards. These, together with economic pressures, often make this industry unreceptive to the introduction of safety measures."

But he added: "Prevention efforts should be directed, most importantly, towards reduction of hazardous working practices in trawler fishing.

"In particular, they should be aimed at the unnecessary operation of small trawlers and net manoeuvres in hazardous weather and sea conditions."

Safety campaigns

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it was working to reduce deaths on the seas.

A spokeswoman told BBC News Online: "The MCA is well aware that fishing and seafaring are by far the most dangerous jobs in Britain.

"We do targeted campaigns year on year looking at different aspects of safety to try and make fishermen aware of the risks and to enable them to help themselves."

 

Same for American statistics :

From : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Selected_occupations_with_high_fatality_rate.png

Bureau of Labor Statistics; NATIONAL CENSUS OF FATAL OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES IN 2006

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This is not to mention the thousands of people diying every year candidate for illegal migration...

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_ill%C3%A9gale

source : http://www.infosplusgabon.com/article.php3?id_article=2232

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As designer and architects, can you bring design ideas to adress theses issues?

We have good boats (sailing), good petrol platforms (standing), but there seem to be a category in between : drifting architecture, that does not have appropriate architecture yet.

If there is one architecture we want to pursue, in the making of the International_Ocean_Station, this is this drifting architecture we are aiming at. We dont really have any reference yet ... we must invent this new family of crafts, between boats and oil rig.

Does it have to be large solid metalic structures? I dont think so. It is probably highly flexible, reconfigurable organic low-cost structures we must think of.

What if fishermen had permanent drifting sustainable fisheries and fish farms?
What if coast guards had permanent observation points, or low efficient  cost life-saving infrastructures?
What if oceanographers, meteorologists had a good platform for ocean research and expeditions?
What if we were able to collect marine debris?
Help us.

http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=369

Article copied directly from BBC News.



Yesterday, the boat carrying around 250 people is reported to have capsized 50km (30 miles) north of the Libyan coast in stormy seas and high winds. Libyan officials say 21 people are confirmed dead and 23 rescued. A second boat with around 350 migrants was rescued, an official from the IOM told the Associated Press news agency. The IOM's Laurence Hart said the rescued boat and all of its passengers were now safely back in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
"Rescue was quick because they were near an oil platform that notified the Libyan coastal guards who quickly rescued the migrants," he said.
The missing boat is believed to be in the same area. Coastguards are looking for two other boats, which reportedly left for Italy in recent days. "This is the typical route for migrants from Libya to Italy," Mr Hart said. More than 200 African migrants (Egyptians, Tunisians and Palestinians) are feared dead after their boat sank off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

Tens of thousands of migrants attempt to reach Europe by sea every year.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres expressed his "great sorrow, a global phenomenon in which desperate people take desperate measures to escape conflict, persecution and poverty in search of a better life". Hundreds of migrants have died in the last few months crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Europe, and the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen. They are at the mercy of unscrupulous smugglers, unseaworthy vessels and the elements but many take these risks for the lure of a better life.

Can Open_Sailing have a role in these migrations?
Our floating living thing could either be used to live on; but also by rescue people, or national migration authorities against illegal migration. And it is getting very politiical... So, let's not get into this yet...

Tacita Dean: Disappearance at Sea

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/art/new-visions/tacita-dean-disappearance-at-sea

Often cited... Romantic, scary...
'Teignmouth Electron', Cayman Brac, 1999 (left)
Colour photographs
It is the Mercy, 1999 (right)
Carving in handrail around the Upper Deck

 

 Repro ID D9995

 

   

Repro ID E0110-7

 

In 1996 Tacita Dean began a series of art works collectively entitled Disappearance at Sea, all inspired by remarkable stories of personal encounters with the sea. A key figure in these works is Donald Crowhurst, a competitor in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Single-Handed Round-the-World Yacht Race. Within a few weeks of departing, Crowhurst realised that his boat, the Teignmouth Electron, was not up to sailing around the world. Rather than returning home, he began to issue false reports of his progress and position until he could bear the deceit no longer and retreated into an internal world, developing an obsession with time and his faulty chronometer. Two weeks before Crowhurst was due home to a hero’s welcome, Teignmouth Electron was found adrift and empty.

For many, Donald Crowhurst is just a cheat who abused the sacred unwrittens of good sportsmanship. But for some, it is more complicated than this and he is seen as much a victim of the Golden Globe as the pursuer of it. His story is about human failing, about pitching his sanity against the sea, where there is no human presence or support system on which to hang a tortured psychological state. His was a world of acute solitude, filled with the ramblings of a troubled mind.
Tacita Dean, 1997

Tacita Dean has created a number of works that respond to this story. A carving has been made in the wooden handrail of the balustrade around the Upper Deck of Neptune Court in the National Maritime Museum. The text: IT IS THE MERCY, is a phrase taken from one of the last entries in Crowhurt’s log-book. It is both ambiguous and unusual: it reminds us that any sailor or passenger who sets out to cross the sea, crosses it at its mercy.
The film, Disappearance at Sea I, is Dean’s first work referring to the story of Donald Crowhurst. This hypnotic film, made in anamorphic (wide-angle) format was created almost entirely on location at St Abb's lighthouse and focuses on the turning mirrors, prisms and filaments of the lighthouse optic. It is filmed at the moment when day becomes night, exploring the quality and movement of both artificial and natural light as the lamp lights and the sun sets. Filmed almost entirely within the safety of the lighthouse, the ghostly images of Crowhurst and Bas Jan Ader – both lost at sea – become symbolic of its unpredictability and dangers.
Continuing her investigation Dean travelled to Cayman Brac, a small island in the Caribbean where Crowhurst’s trimaran, the Teignmouth Electron, lies beached. It has been abandoned there for over 20 years after having been refitted as a tourist boat. The NMM commissioned Dean to photograph the vessel, which remains a sad yet still majestic reminder of these events.

Meeting the regulations

We want to share our experience to enable other groups of people, and administration is a large part of the project. This is an extract of the conversation with British Authorities. Sounds like we are on a very good track !

Hello dear xxxxxxx,

As a minimum the vessel should comply with SOLAS V, which can be found
in the link below. She will also have to have to comply with the
COLREGS. Such as displaying the necessary lights and shapes, and
crossing shipping lanes at right angles.

http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/solas.pdf

I would suggest that you carry all the basic life saving gear such as
life jackets, flares, radio, first aid kit, and if possible, a radar
reflector.

For the launch and tow down the Thames, you should contact the Port of
London Authority (PLA) in the first instance. Contact details can be
found at www.pla.co.uk

For the crossing itself, you will need to notify Dover Coastguard well
in advance of your intentions. You should also contact the French and
Dutch authorities. The link below will provide some further
information.

http://www.mcga.gov.uk

I see no problem with the vessel registering on the Small Ships
register. An application form is attached. The registration fee is
£25.

I hope this helps. If you require any further information please don't
hesitate to get in touch.

Best regards,
xxxxxx

UK Ship Register
Spring Place
105 Commercial Road
Southampton
SO15 1EG
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 2380 329 197
Fax: +44 (0) 2380 329 447
www.ukshipregister.co.uk

Self-righting, insubmersible boats

The design of the Open_Sailing_01 has been influenced by the Givens Inflatable liferaft.



Download the video ( .flv flash 14 mb | .mp4 quicktime 40 mb)



You can download here the .pdf of the Givens US-Patent of James A. Givens 1988.



Download the pdf the self-righting boat, Patent of Derek Wright 1991



And lastly, the large inflatable life raft with a central pilar to hold the roof, pdf patent of Baughman 1989.



So this is our design, Open_Sailing_01, inspired by these inflatable liferaft technologies. We try to combine these technologies in something simple and efficient.

Open_Sailing_01 skin proposal

These are the walls on Open_Sailing_01, 20 cm thick of floatability, under pressure for rigity with ø10 steel staples.

OUT
-polypropylene heavy duty fabric (http://www.loxam.be/data/Image/01-24-02-0_Sac-gravats.jpg)
- 10ø steel mesh, rebar (http://www.geocities.com/burao2003/ReSteel2.jpg)
- fish nets holding bottles (http://asnailpace.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/richie-sowa-spiral-island-new.jpg)
- 10ø steel mesh, rebar again
- space blanket (http://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/bl001-1.jpg)
- polypropylene heavyduty fabric
IN

The thickness should ensure structural fonction, no need for huge metal beams -> exo-skeleton!

This is a very cheap construction material, all materials are remaining separate which means, it is easy to recycle each component separately, or recycle the materials in the next iteration.

Imagine the inner skin to a bit like this (in white):


Hehehe! Old english! So now, it is comfortable, you want to join? He!

Wave breaking shield

In reaction to the previous video post, Rupert's proposing an outer shield to protect the vessel from violent waves, click on the image above to enlarge.




3D be nasser moustakim : sketchup

20090330_open-sailing_09

3D model by Nasser Moustakim, http://international-ocean-station.org/download/20090330_open-sailing_09.skp

Sketchup is a free easy to use 3D softrware for mac, PC, Linux, download here.

A Mobile Mesh Network Goes Nuclear

Backpacks that detect nuclear material form a wireless mesh network.
Technology review By Kristina Grifantini


Credit: Joseph Tumminello

Nuclear option: This backpack (top) contains sensors that detect radioactive materials. Coupled with a mesh network, it automatically builds a map showing hazardous materials in the area. A mesh node wirelessly transmits results from nuclear sensors to handheld devices (bottom), such as a wrist-worn display or a PDA.

New mesh-networking technology will allow soldiers to more quickly search an area for signs of nuclear contamination. A company called Rajant has combined mesh radio transmitters with radiation-sensing backpacks to create a system that automatically sets up a communications mesh and displays a map of radiation across a region.

Mesh networking offers a fast, cheap way to construct a communications network. Instead of sending messages via a central command point, information hops from one node to another until it reaches its destination. A number of companies use static mesh networks for tasks such as traffic monitoring and environmental sensing, but creating reliable mobile mesh networks is more challenging. This is because each node must constantly track its moving neighbors to figure out how best to pass on a message while also preserving energy and bandwidth. Rajant addresses this problem by having nodes monitor just a few of their closest neighbors at any time.

For the detection system, Rajant's communication nodes, called BreadCrumbs, are connected to backpack sensors that detect radioactive material including plutonium and enriched uranium; the sensors are made by a company called Nucsafe. Team members wearing the sensors branch out and perform reconnaissance of an area. Data from each node hops back to a main computer, which builds a map showing the position of each node and its radiation data while individual users can see a map of their pack's results on a wrist-worn display or a laptop. Rajant presented the newest version of the system at the 2009 Soldier Technology Conference in Florida last month.

Each BreadCrumb can communicate with a peer that is up to five miles away, says Glenn Booth, vice president of marketing for Rajant. He adds that the mobile network has enough bandwidth to transmit a video stream or VoIP, even with hundreds of nodes all moving in different directions. The company already sells the wireless technology to mining companies and the military, and a single BreadCrumb device costs up to about $5,000.

"Building a reliable network is difficult because of mutual interference between radio nodes," says Dipankar Raychaudhuri, who works on mobile mesh networks for vehicles at Rutgers. Networks work with a certain density of radios, he says, but "can fall apart if radios move out of range in uncontrolled settings."

"The problem with completely mobile networks is that there is no guarantee of connectivity," adds Nader Moayeri, who works on mesh and ad hoc networks for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. "One other challenge is the capacity of the network," says Moayeri. Normally, as each node moves, it has to recalculate the best routes for a message. "That's considerable overhead," he says. "It eats up bandwidth you could be using for sending actual data."

Another way to improve a mobile network is to use several radio transmitters. For example, a company called MeshDynamics has developed transmitters that use two radios to send and receive data instead of just one.

Drifting on the Atlantic, Al Jedida to Las Palmas

The Open Sailing is mostly a drifting structure, which means, its journey depends greatly of the currents and winds. We will need to see the weather forecast and conditions, but the journey Al Jedida to Las Palmas seems a very accessible first ride. About the currents in the Atlantic North, "the Canary Current travel at 0.03 to 0.07 m/s", 5cm/s average, not very fast.

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Currents :

So that's 3m/minute, 180m/hour, 4'320m/day, 129'600m/30days, 129,6km in 30 days. We have about 30 days of drifting planned, during which we want to sail about 832km, so currents alone would do about 1/6 of the "propulsion".

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Winds :
Our zone has average winds 15knots per hour (30km/h) which is not very fast. So if we add the current and influence of dominant winds, we can hope to consequently accelerate our pace.

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Waves :

The waves might slow us, but shouldn't threaten us as the average seems to be about 1.5 m height in average, shouldn't be too hard to handle that.

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Predators :

The worst animal that can approach us is the great white shark

There are white sharks where we are going

But they rarely attack in deep sea, usually in shallow waters

Sharks have a strong tendency to attack human males

And preferrably caucasians.

So if you are a black girl swimming in deep sea, you should be fine said the statistics.

Morocco has no recorded history of fatal shark attack, the canary Island had 1 fatal shark attack between 1828 and 2007, our chances to be attacked by sharks are very low, and our chances to die of the following almost inexistant. Still we will be extra carefull.

So globally our journey on the part 1 of the expedition Al jedida to Las Palmas, should be sunny, not very windy, quite small waves and with almost no chance to be attacked by large predators. GREAT !

Global Maritime Distress Safety System

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Maritime_Distress_Safety_System
UN Oceans and Law: The Law of the Sea

The Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS) is an internationally agreed-upon set of safety procedures, types of equipment, and communication protocols used to increase safety and make it easier to rescue distressed ships, boats and aircraft.

GMDSS consists of several systems, some of which are new, but many of which have been in operation for many years. The system is intended to perform the following functions: alerting (including position determination of the unit in distress), search and rescue coordination, locating (homing), maritime safety information broadcasts, general communications, and bridge-to-bridge communications. Specific radio carriage requirements depend upon the ship's area of operation, rather than its tonnage. The system also provides redundant means of distress alerting, and emergency sources of power.

Recreational vessels do not need to comply with GMDSS radio carriage requirements, but will increasingly use the Digital Selective Calling (DSC) VHF radios. Offshore vessels may elect to equip themselves further. Vessels under 300 Gross tonnage (GT) are not subject to GMDSS requirements.

Extreme Environments in Architecture

a very interesting blog on novel architecture forms and computations by AA School of Architecture.
http://dip16.blogspot.com/

And also the amazing Neri Oxman
http://www.materialecology.com/

structural animal protection

animal structural protection













 

 

Yvon Legay, Institut Marin de Prevention, Lorient

I met Yvon Leroy, the technical director of the Marine Institut of Prevention in Lorient Bretagne, in charge of getting the safety equipments its way on most french boats, for off-shore platforms, fret, commercial, touristic and fishermen. His institution keeps a record of all accidents and safety procedures to adapt and enhance the health and safety response on board, and on survival equipments and communications.


















Sir Yvon Leroy was extremely kind to introduce me to Yann Chauty, the french specialist in deep sea survival, fondator and instructor of the "Centre d'Etude et de Pratique de la Survie", CEPS, Center for the study and practice of survival.

Yvon Leroy also advised to visit the "Organisation Maritime Internationale", in London.