Marine Operations Articles

Designing a spreader beam for lifting

Spreader beams are universally applied gear which is widely used in various types of lifting operations, onshore and offshore. In this article, we will explore the design of a basic spreader beam and see what design checks are needed to establish the suitability of a...

Safe Towing: Calculating a towline’s catenary and sag

Introduction Towlines connect a tug to the vessel being towed and are defined by multiple characteristics like Weight, Diameter, and Stiffness. The tension in the towline during the towing operation is not static but keeps varying with the distance between the tug and...

Designing the lashings of deck cargo using IMO CSS

Introduction More than 70% of the earth is covered by water, which makes shipping historically the easiest and cheapest way of connecting manufactures and customers across the globe and can be reasonably considered to be the artery of the global economy....

Using MS Excel to evaluate the Stability of existing Barges

Barges are the simplest, and yet most widely used of marine vehicles. They are used for a variety of purposes ranging from carrying cargo in bulk or liquid, to even carrying passengers for short inland cruises. Barges are mostly towed by another barge called a tug,...