Ship handling

Overview
 When handling a ship, particularly in narrow
waters, a number of factors must be taken into
account
These can be divided into:
ship dependent factors
- type of machinery
- number and type of propellers
- number and type of rudders
- number and type of thrusters
- draught
- trim
- shape and condition of the hull
 external factors
- wind, (sea and swell)
- tide or current
- depth and extent of surrounding water
- distance to other ships
 Type of machinery
Depending on the machinery there are two
factors that may differ
These are:
- a difference in ahead and astern power
- a difference in time needed for changing from
ahead to astern
The majority of modern merchant ships have
diesel engines with astern power being up to
approx 80 per cent of ahead power (with
different ratios when it comes to steam or gas
turbines)
 Type of propellers
Most ships still have a single right-handed
fixed propeller (traditional propeller with
blades in the fixed position), i.e. turning
clockwise when going ahead and viewed
from astern
More and more ships have a CPP,
controllable pitch propeller
Now the shaft and propeller rotate in one
direction only and astern power is achieved
by reversing the pitch of the blades and is
the same as ahead power
 Some ships have more than one propeller
- twin screws or triple screws
All propellers have something called 'turning
effect' or 'transverse thrust' (sideways moving
effect of a turning propeller)
In other words they do not only 'push' the ship
ahead or astern but also sideways
This effect for a ship with a right-handed propeller
is:
1. going ahead> stern is 'pushed' to the right and
consequently the bow to port
2. going astern> stern is 'pushed' to the left briskly
and the bow to starboard
It is obvious that with a right-handed CPP the
effect is always as mentioned under 1.
 Type of rudder
Most ships are fitted with a single balanced
rudder or semi-balanced rudder
A rudder angle of about 35 is considered to
give maximum efficiency
A rather new type is the flap rudder
- That's a rudder with a hinging back part
- They are able to "bend" the waterflow almost
to 90 degrees to the fore and aft line
For a rudder to be effective the ship needs to
make sufficient steerage way (enough
movement of the ship for ther rudder to be
effective)
 Type of thrusters
One type is built-in
It consists of a straight tunnel through
the bow and sometimes also one
through the stern
Hence bow thrusters and stern thrusters
Another type, not built-in, is the
azimuthing propeller (also called pod
drive)
This is a retractable system - when
needed, it is lowered from a recess in
the ship's bottom
It is able to turn 360
 Some ships have pod drives as their main
propulsion system
In that case they are fitted permanently
outside the hull
A ship's ability to move perfectly sideways
without turning or forward speed is called
'crabbing' in modern jargon
 Draught and trim
In general ships that are trimmed by the
stern by 2 or 3 feet have the best steering
properties
Trim fore and aft balance of a ship
If either the bow or the stern is deeper in
the water, the vessel is said to be down by
the head or down by the stern
 Wind
The effect of the wind depends on the area
presented to the wind before or aft of the ships
pivoting point
This point is not a fixed point but depends on
whether the ship moves ahead or astern
Ships with the main superstructure aft, such as
tankers, will turn towards the wind (Also called: to
bear down)
An offshore supply boat will turn away from the wind
(Also called: to bear away) effect on steering
Another effect is that the ship as a whole is moved
sideways, certainly with a strong beam wind > this is
called: to make leeway
 Speed
Full sea speed and manoeuvring speed are
different things
At full sea-speed the engine cannot suddenly be
reversed but the RPM need to be reduced
For a ship with steam turbines, needing the astern
turbine, the minimal time for slowing down is about
one minute and for a diesel engine it will be close
to two minutes
For ships with a CPP the required time will be far
less since the shaft will keep turning in the same
direction
 Moving stern-first (moving stern
foremost)
To move stern-first means that a ship is moving
backwards over same distance
When there is not sufficient room to turn ahead of
her, she may have to move stern-first until in an
adequate position
If a ship is making sternway (same meaning) the
rudder effect is opposite to and much smaller than
the effect when making headway
For this reason, ships that move stern-first
frequently (ferries, drifters - fishing with floating
net) may be equipped with a bow rudder
 Making fast

Often the first line is taken to the quay by the

boatmen (people in a small mooring boat
who receive the first ships line and take it to
the bollard)
The ship is then still at same distance away
from the quay
This line is slowly lowered into their boat
from the ship's forecastle while they give
directions from below
 If not assisted by boatmen, there will be
linesmen waiting
A heaving line is thrown out from the ship
and caught by a linesman
This will sometimes take a few efforts which
must be the reason for having boatmen
Sometimes 'the shore' also requires the use
a messenger
In that case the messenger - a thinner Iighter
line - is attached to the heaving line first and
next the thick ship's line on to the messenger
 The lines are put on bollards
The holes in the ship's side that the lines
pass through are called fairleads
The mooring lines
- ropes and wires > the number depending
upon the size of the ship, the prevailing
conditions of wind, tide and currents
Ropes and wires leading forward and aft will
stop the vessel ranging up and down the
quay, while "breastropes" leading close to
the quay will keep the ship firmly alongside
 Shifting berth and warping
Shifting berth means both moving to
another anchorage berth or alongside
berth in port
Warping > originally meant to move a ship
from one place to another by means of
ropes only
Nowadays it is also used as a synonym for
shifting berth
 Number of tugs
Port regulations (by-laws) will prescribe
how many tugs the ship will have to use
This will depend on her size, handling
characteristics and whether or not she is
carrying dangerous cargo
Moreover, the pilot will take the weather
conditions into account
 Pilot card
With many leading shipping companies it is
customary to give such a completed card to
the pilot as soon as he enters the
wheelhouse
As a VTS operator it helps you realize what
the important manoeuvring essentials are, in
particular when communicating in English
with a ship with pilot exemption
 Crash Stop
When the engines are put astern to stop as quickly
as possible after going full ahead the manoeuvre
is known as a crash stop
Because of the turning effect of the rudder the ship
will gradually turn away from its initial course
The total distance travelled in the direction of the
ship's initial course is the advance distance
The distance the ship has moved away from this
same imaginary line in stopped position is called
transfer distance
For a loaded 200,000 tonnes tanker it may take 25
minutes with an advance and transfer distance of
12 and 4 ship lengths respectively
 Turning circle

If the rudder is put hard over when the ship

is going ahead and kept in this position, the
ship will describe a turning circle
The diameter is usually between 3 and 5
ship lengths for a merchant ship of any size
going at full ahead and using full helm
A listed vessel will normally have a smaller
turning circle towards the high side
 Shallow water effects

When moving in relatively shallow water,

there may be certain "hydrodynamic"
interactions influencing ship handling
The effect depends on the depth/draught
ratio
If less than two it should not be neglected
 Squat
The effect will be that the ship will "sink" deeper into
the water and there will be a change in trim
The overall decrease in the UKC
If a ship moves ahead at too high a speed in
shallow water, the grounding may occur at the bow
or stern
An increase in average draught of more than 2 m
may happen to a ship moving at a fairly high speed
Squat is approximately proportional to the square of
the ship's speed
So halving the speed reduces the squat effect by a
factor of four
 Bow cushion and bank suction

In a narrow fairway the bow may be pushed

away from the bank and the hull attracted to it
The first effect, called bow cushion, is caused
by the bow wave or more precisely the
pressure field of the bow
The second - bank suction - is caused by the
increased speed of the water in the restricted
space between the hull and the bank
Interaction between passing ships

A similar effect will take place when two

ships moving at high speeds pass close to
each other. The effect will be more important
with both ships moving in the same direction
because this takes much longer than on
opposite courses
 When a big ship is overtaking a smaller one
at acIose distance there will be two
dangerous stages
1. The first is when the bow of the big ship
approaches the stern of the smaller one >
the latter will tend to swing across the path
of the big one
2. The second dangerous stage is when
the two ships are paralleI > The smaller
one will tend to turn into the side of the big
one