The North Sea is not a place to be in winter: http://www.thelocal.no/20151231/out-of-control-rig-nearly-trashes-bp-rig
The first fatal accident in the Norwegian Oil and Gas Industry since 2009: http://www.thelocal.no/20151231/chaos-as-huge-waves-off-norway-kill-oil-rig-worker
[QUOTE=ombugge;176444]The North Sea is not a place to be in winter: http://www.thelocal.no/20151231/out-of-control-rig-nearly-trashes-bp-rig
The first fatal accident in the Norwegian Oil and Gas Industry since 2009: http://www.thelocal.no/20151231/chaos-as-huge-waves-off-norway-kill-oil-rig-worker[/QUOTE]
It’s interesting that they used “Mile” ---- “At 12:24 hours, we got the message that the barge had passed clear of the platform at a distance of about 1 nautical mile,”
If they do this, I wonder is Sea Shepard will protest the Harpooning of a Defenseless Barge. ---- “We are discussing whether to try and get a grip on the tow rope whichh has broken, or whether to use special harpoons that they can shoot through the hull,” (I guess they do not have Spell Check, or maybe WHICH is spelled different over there).
Nautical Mile is a nautical term, not something specifically American.
If they do this, I wonder is Sea Shepard will protest the Harpooning of a Defenseless Barge. ---- “We are discussing whether to try and get a grip on the tow rope whichh has broken, or whether to use special harpoons that they can shoot through the hull,” (I guess they do not have Spell Check, or maybe WHICH is spelled different over there).
News media people have their own way of reporting anything maritime, which is a world wide phenomena. (As is typos)
What the Owner of the barge said was that they had fired a grapler to try to fish the main bridle since they were unable to get hold of the emergency tow arrangement for some reason not explained.
We in the US will fight tooth and nail against the nautical kilometer. We will also oppose eliminating Lat/Lon to strictly use whatever decimal system there is. Don’t even get me started on metric courses/directions. You’ll have be to pry nautical miles and degrees/minutes/seconds from my cold dead hands.
[QUOTE=z-drive;176469]We in the US will fight tooth and nail against the nautical kilometer. We will also oppose eliminating Lat/Lon to strictly use whatever decimal system there is. Don’t even get me started on metric courses/directions. You’ll have be to pry nautical miles and degrees/minutes/seconds from my cold dead hands.[/QUOTE]
Looks like we’re way ahead of you. Down in the dungeon, metric is well established. Or getting there.
[QUOTE=z-drive;176469]We in the US will fight tooth and nail against the nautical kilometer. We will also oppose eliminating Lat/Lon to strictly use whatever decimal system there is. Don’t even get me started on metric courses/directions. You’ll have be to pry nautical miles and degrees/minutes/seconds from my cold dead hands.[/QUOTE]
The International nautical mile is defined as exactly 1852 meters 
And don’t the offshore sector in USA use the UTM system in construction?
yes. Nobody on here gets my humor. I was saying in another thread that yes, metric is used in many many applications in the US regardless of it being unofficial or not. So there’s no need for it to be official given its widespread use.
[QUOTE=z-drive;176477]yes. Nobody on here gets my humor. I was saying in another thread that yes, metric is used in many many applications in the US regardless of it being unofficial or not. So there’s no need for it to be official given its widespread use.[/QUOTE]
Accepting your humor, can we say that you are agreeing that since the metric system is in wide use it may as well be made official??
[QUOTE=Kraken;176475]The International nautical mile is defined as exactly 1852 meters And don’t the offshore sector in USA use the UTM system in construction?[/QUOTE]
I cannot remember positioning a rig on an open location in anything other then UTM since GPS became the means of positioning. Before that it was normally just a marker buoy and a given tolerance in feet. Final position were only known after a set number of good satellite passes had been averaged.
The Surveyor would do his thing in UTM, while the rest of us insisted on getting it in Lat/Long. at the centre of the slot. (That should tell you how long I go back as a Rig Mover)
In fact the standard meter also come from a nautical background.
It was first defined as 1/10.000.000 of an earth quadrant along a meridian, from the North pole to Equator. This is 90 degr., or 5400 min. in latitude.
One Nautical mile is defined as 1 min. in longitude, or 1/5400 of an earth quadrant along equator, or 1851.85 metre. (In normal navigation rounded off to 1852 metre)
Yes I know that you Mariners here know this, but there are others here (Engineers etc.)who may not.
It was defined by a platinum bar, which was kept in Paris at a steady temperature of 15 Centigrades. This was used by other nations to check their own standard meter.
Since it was found that the earth is not entirely spherical but somewhat “pear shaped” this standard meter have been adjusted with the development of knowledge and science.
This is not accurate enough for modern measures. In 1960, the metre was redefined in terms of a certain number of wavelengths of a certain emission line of krypton-86.
In 1983, the current definition was adopted as the standard metre used in the International Standard System of Measurements (SI).
[QUOTE=z-drive;176469]You’ll have be to pry nautical miles and degrees/minutes/seconds from my cold dead hands.[/QUOTE]
Screw you and your “seconds”…
Two things:
Feet/fathoms/yards/miles are loosely based on the human body. I can walk a leisurely mile in about 30 minutes. How long does it take me to walk a kilometer? 18 minutes? Who does t/s/d calculations in their head in base 18? How wide is the span of my splayed fingers? About 7 inches. Why bother with some much larger, hard to remember number of centimeters?
Football. That’s US football. Decades from now it’ll still be 1st and 10. This will never ever change.
[QUOTE=Capt. Phoenix;176489]Screw you and your “seconds”…[/QUOTE]
Who needs any of this? Any good ol’Coonass Skipper only needs to see a Platform number once in a while and he knows his way back to his bayou without any of all that fancy stuff.
[QUOTE=civmar;176494]Two things:
Normal walking speed for a healthy human is about 5 km/h = 60 : 5 = 12 minutes
[QUOTE=ombugge;176488]I cannot remember positioning a rig on an open location in anything other then UTM since GPS became the means of positioning. Before that it was normally just a marker buoy and a given tolerance in feet. Final position were only known after a set number of good satellite passes had been averaged.
The Surveyor would do his thing in UTM, while the rest of us insisted on getting it in Lat/Long. at the centre of the slot. (That should tell you how long I go back as a Rig Mover)
In fact the standard meter also come from a nautical background.
It was first defined as 1/10.000.000 of an earth quadrant along a meridian, from the North pole to Equator. This is 90 degr., or 5400 min. in latitude.
One Nautical mile is defined as 1 min. in longitude, or 1/5400 of an earth quadrant along equator, or 1851.85 metre. (In normal navigation rounded off to 1852 metre)
Yes I know that you Mariners here know this, but there are others here (Engineers etc.)who may not.
It was defined by a platinum bar, which was kept in Paris at a steady temperature of 15 Centigrades. This was used by other nations to check their own standard meter.
Since it was found that the earth is not entirely spherical but somewhat “pear shaped” this standard meter have been adjusted with the development of knowledge and science.
This is not accurate enough for modern measures. In 1960, the metre was redefined in terms of a certain number of wavelengths of a certain emission line of krypton-86.
In 1983, the current definition was adopted as the standard metre used in the International Standard System of Measurements (SI).[/QUOTE]
In the early '70s, Decca was the standard system for location in the North Sea. We also used doppler sonar with satellite updates. The nav-satellites then were on a polar orbit. We had usable passes in the higher latitudes every hour or less. Mid latitudes, the usable passes were every 4 hours. But then again, I’m just an engineer. What do I know…
[QUOTE=injunear;176507]In the early '70s, Decca was the standard system for location in the North Sea. We also used doppler sonar with satellite updates. The nav-satellites then were on a polar orbit. We had usable passes in the higher latitudes every hour or less. Mid latitudes, the usable passes were every 4 hours. But then again, I’m just an engineer. What do I know…[/QUOTE]
OOps I managed to insult another part of the fraternity here.
I didn’t get to the North Sea before the early 1980s so I didn’t experience Decca as the main positioning system.
In S.E.Asia in the 1970s terrestrial and celestial systems were used for positioning of location buoys by the survey boat, with triangulation used to determine final position of the drill stem. This system was used in West Africa and the Middle East well into the 1980s, but a satellite receiver was placed on the rig for finals.
In the North Sea in the 1980s Syledis or similar was used for “long range” and mini-ranger for close-up positioning and tracking, with satellite as final positioning still, if I remember right.
[QUOTE=ombugge;176527]OOps I managed to insult another part of the fraternity here.
I didn’t get to the North Sea before the early 1980s so I didn’t experience Decca as the main positioning system.
In S.E.Asia in the 1970s terrestrial and celestial systems were used for positioning of location buoys by the survey boat, with triangulation used to determine final position of the drill stem. This system was used in West Africa and the Middle East well into the 1980s, but a satellite receiver was placed on the rig for finals.
In the North Sea in the 1980s Syledis or similar was used for “long range” and mini-ranger for close-up positioning and tracking, with satellite as final positioning still, if I remember right.[/QUOTE]
There were several nav systems in use. In the GOM before GPS, Offshore Radist, Lorac and Decca were the most common using phase differential instead of TDs like Loran. My time in Africa in late '70s was mostly repair and salvage but what I saw of rig location was done with a small survey boat that also did sub-bottom profiles and side-scans of the sites. I’ve seen several portable master/slave nav systems set up in South America but the early sat-nav systems that were mounted in 19 inch racks were reduced to suitcase size around '80. The tech advances in my 39 years in the business are amazing. My cell phone gps is more accurate than the sat-nav survey vessels with doppler sonar.
[QUOTE=ombugge;176495]Who needs any of this? Any good ol’Coonass Skipper only needs to see a Platform number once in a while and he knows his way back to his bayou without any of all that fancy stuff.[/QUOTE]
Just thinking back, I’ve had issues with a few coonasses but then again, I’ve encountered stupid shit from every nationality. (including yankees and pnwfers) My first trip to the North Sea in '70, I was amazed to see the number of coonasses in Aberdeen and Peterhead. Gulf-Miss, Robin Towing, DeFeleace and even Jackson marine had a few coonasses. These guys set the standard for the North Sea and even managed to tow rigs, pipe lay and construction barges to the North Sea with no block charts.
[QUOTE=ombugge;176495]Who needs any of this? Any good ol’Coonass Skipper only needs to see a Platform number once in a while and he knows his way back to his bayou without any of all that fancy stuff.[/QUOTE]
My italian forefathers who were commercial fishermen had a good method too…just leave a trail of breadcrumbs in your wake to find your way back.
[QUOTE=injunear;176577]There were several nav systems in use. In the GOM before GPS, Offshore Radist, Lorac and Decca were the most common using phase differential instead of TDs like Loran. My time in Africa in late '70s was mostly repair and salvage but what I saw of rig location was done with a small survey boat that also did sub-bottom profiles and side-scans of the sites. I’ve seen several portable master/slave nav systems set up in South America but the early sat-nav systems that were mounted in 19 inch racks were reduced to suitcase size around '80. The tech advances in my 39 years in the business are amazing. My cell phone gps is more accurate than the sat-nav survey vessels with doppler sonar.[/QUOTE]
A lot of people were employed in the positioning business, on the survey boats, on the rigs to set up and man the tracking system 24/7 and get final position by satellite. Also ashore to set up based stations in sometime very remote and difficult to reach places, which could involve camping out for days to get accurate fixes. (Not me)
Some unusual problems could occure. Off Tierra del Fuego in Argentina we had a problem with sheeps that found the base stations VERY attractive to use as rubbing poles. Fence had to be erected to keep them out.
The most accurate positioning I have been involved with was the Ekofisk Barrier installation in 1989:
http://www.oges.info/78023/transport-and-installation-protective-barrier-ekofisk-tank
I was Project Mariner for the Warranty Surveyors from the construction of the bottom slabs in Rotterdam, transport to Aalfjord in Norway, mooring during slip-forming, tow to field and final installation. I believe this to be the most complex Marine Operation ever performed anywhere.
For the tow-out and installation we had ALL the latest and best positioning and tracking equipment available at the time, with different teams of technician for each system (Three Containers full) and more monitors in the control room than you could shake a stick at.
The instrumentation included:
Syledis for the open water tow,
Mini-rangers in the fjords and for approach to the Ekofisk Field,
Laser for relative horizontal distance above water,
Acoustics for UKC and relative distance at several levels below surface.
The equipment used was:
4 x 150 m.t. hydraulic winches installed on the second half,
2 x AHTS used as “Static points” (Winch platform w/anchor point)
4 x AHT used in ranging mode
1 x Docking pin.
Weight of each half at tow-out was abt. 230,00 m.t., which increased to abt. 260,000 m.t. at the mating stage. One half was already set in position first while the second half was brought into position for mating.
Which of the positioning systems available were used for the final bit of positioning?
The acoustics for UKC and an ordinary hand held metric tape measure.
The given tolerance for mating the two halves of the barrier was +/- 75 mm. (3")
Final position obtained: +/-35 mm. (1 1/2")
I read somewhere that if it wasn’t for the fact that cocaine is sold in metric units most Americans would have no concept of the metric system.