Your gCaptain team misses this bit of news of the ridiculous

Maritime News Marine Incidents
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asleep at the switch eh?

[B]Ferry loses power, commuters see long lines and delays as a result
[/B]
by KING 5 News and Associated Press

Posted on July 29, 2014 at 1:39 PM

SEATTLE – The Washington state ferry Tacoma lost power while on a run and got stuck in the middle of Puget Sound Tuesday afternoon, stranding hundreds on board. The inconvenience didn’t end there.

The loss of one ferry created a ripple effect that caused long lines and delays throughout the busy afternoon commute.

The Tacoma was traveling from Seattle to Bainbridge Island with 405 passengers and 138 cars on board when it lost propulsion just before 1 p.m.

“At first I was a little nervous, and I wanted to pay attention to my surroundings and figure out if what they were telling us was really going on,” said passenger Deborah Berlinski.

The vessel dropped anchor while the Coast Guard was notified and Washington State Ferries dispatched tugs to the scene. Captain Ty Anderson said the key was to stay calm for his crew and the passengers.

Two tugs pulled the ferry to the Bainbridge Island ferry dock around 3 p.m. Another ferry that was on the Bremerton-to-Seattle run, the Sealth, had been rerouted to be on standby status next to the Tacoma.

Passengers were stuck on the ferry were given travel vouchers as they deboarded the vessel.

Washington State Ferries said the Tacoma will remain out of service. It would be towed to a repair dock so engineers could try to determine why it lost power, ferry officials said.

With the ferry run down to just one ferry, Washington State Ferries warned big lines and delays with service.

“There’s just one boat going back and forth, normally there’s two,” said passenger Molly Jackson. “Not ideal, for sure.”

To correct the problem on one of the state’s busiest ferry routes in time for the Wednesday morning commute, Washington State Ferries announced that the Seattle to Bainbridge route will return to a two boat schedule by 5:20 a.m. Wednesday.

In order to make that happen, the Edmonds/Kingston route will be operating with just one ferry on Wednesday, July 30th. That means the long lines and delays could shift to that ferry route. Updates will be posted here.

Ferry riders, both walk-on and those traveling in vehicles, are encouraged to check the schedules before you travel and plan ahead when it comes to that morning commute.

Speaking of switches, I wonder what those fine engineers on the TACOMA did to cause the vessel to go black? I guess the vessel must be diesel electric and something went poof in the board otherwise one would think the other end could bring the vessel to the dock. A BIG BUNCH OF BANANAS!

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speaking of the ridiculous…why is the SEALTH trying to tow the TACOMA when there is a large tractor tug on the scene? Didn’t the SEALTH have passengers to deliver? Did they think they were going to tow it back to Seattle?

BANANAS is too gentle of a term to use…A BUNCH OF EFFING BOOBS is better!

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So it seems.

http://www.wsdot.com/ferries/vesselwatch/VesselDetail.aspx?vessel_id=32

Propulsion: DIESEL-ELECTRIC (AC)

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[QUOTE=Tups;141589]So it seems.[/QUOTE]

so what happened? must be a main buss bar melting because if it was a breaker blowing up you have the other end to drive the ship or the other generators to make the juice.

of course, single buss switchboards are a major failure point so why build any D/E vessel with a single board? also, why did the breakers not protect the buss? lousy maintenance? some auto function manually overridden? WTF occurred on that vessel yesterday? Inquiring minds want to know!

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Maybe they were to busy filling out incident reports and statement forms to diagnose the problem. Besides who would own a DP 0 ferry anyways? This is a clear violation of 500 m practices.

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[QUOTE=Fraqrat;141592]Maybe they were to busy filling out incident reports and statement forms to diagnose the problem. Besides who would own a DP 0 ferry anyways? This is a clear violation of 500 m practices.[/QUOTE]

NAW! Too busy doing the usual WSF union ferry employee practice of sitting on their fat asses all day, every day! A lazier, more useless bunch of layabouts I have yet to encounter.

“Got to file a beef with the shop steward because they changed the brand of the coffee”

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[QUOTE=c.captain;141590]so what happened? must be a main buss bar melting because if it was a breaker blowing up you have the other end to drive the ship or the other generators to make the juice.

of course, single buss switchboards are a major failure point so why build any D/E vessel with a single board? also, why did the breakers not protect the buss? lousy maintenance? some auto function manually overridden? WTF occurred on that vessel yesterday? Inquiring minds want to know![/QUOTE]

I tried looking up the technical info on this ship and came up with very little other than it has 4 DGs. How many screws does this ship have? I agree that the main bus bar is suspect but what happened that caused such a massive amperage draw to make it fail has me wondering. I have a feeling we’ll have to wait for the NTSB report, if NTSB actually does come and investigate.

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[QUOTE=TrainMan;141596]I tried looking up the technical info on this ship and came up with very little other than it has 4 DGs. How many screws does this ship have? I agree that the main bus bar is suspect but what happened that caused such a massive amperage draw to make it fail has me wondering. I have a feeling we’ll have to wait for the NTSB report, if NTSB actually does come and investigate.[/QUOTE]

They’d better damned well investigate! USCG as well. There was a whole boatload of passengers onboard!

btw, two screws…one on each end and I believe each driven by two motors through a gearbox.

btw, to have one of the largest of the WSF boats go down right in the height of the summer season is going to throw the whole system into bloody chaos! Helluvajob Brownie!

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Ok, so the Tacoma is kind of androgynous in that it doesn’t really have a forward and aft end. The ferries I am most familiar with are oddly enough the ones on the Dover-Calais route over in Europe. Still though, it seems like the Tacoma has enough redundancy to manage most issues with the only major single point of failure at the main bus. And I have to agree, who’s idea was it to run the ferry system so lean?

I usually feel sorry for the working people of Washington with how leftish everything is there. Maybe someone will figure out how to rent a ferry from somewhere to manage the backlogs. Doubt it. That would require a prudent fiscal policy: not the left’s strong point.

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While there were no “safe return to port”-rules in force in the 90s, I’m quite sure those ferries have at least a split main switchboard. Of course, the physical switchboards are likely located in the same compartment. In that sense, if something bad happened there, it’s quite understandable that propulsion power was lost from both ends.

Modern ferries, both conventional and double-ended, are of course fully redundant due to the current SRTP requirements. Not too long ago, one of our shipyards lost a bid for two large double-ended ferries due to financial issues. Those were the first “real” desings I’ve seen with such propulsion arrangement. They were rather interesting, not quite what I was expecting.

Of course, the 70-ton ferry to my cabin is a double-ended road ferry, but it’s just a barge with two Cats mechanically coupled to Z-drives…

TrainMan, if you’re talking about Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France, those were among the first SRTP ferries ever built…

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what needs to be asked is if it is a catastrophic buss failure…how did that occur? What combination of failures would cause that? There are circuit breakers to protect a buss from surge overcurrent. There are overspeed trips on the generator prime movers. It does not appear that anyone commanded too much power too quickly since the vessel was still out in the open water and even if somehow a control was accidentally pushed down hard, the logic in the controls should prevent pulling too much power from the generators. Reverse current would fry a generator but there were four total…all four could not blow up on reverse current. There is no reason all four gens should have been online in any event. That is not how these vessels operate.

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?

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I’ll tell you what happened they sold the snohimish and the chinook for pennies on the dollar. Those were the only two good ferries they prolly ever had. Bet they wishes they still had those things

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The sealth actually saved the day, the capt was an ex tug guy and maneuvered her in close to stop the Tacoma from running aground. Was listening to the whole debacle while stuck in the locks trying to head that way myself. The real credit goes to the capt of the sealth.

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[QUOTE=Fraqrat;141613]I’ll tell you what happened they sold the snohimish and the chinook for pennies on the dollar. Those were the only two good ferries they prolly ever had. Bet they wishes they still had those things[/QUOTE]

those were POS passenger only boats

      • Updated - - -

[QUOTE=rshrew;141617]The sealth actually saved the day, the capt was an ex tug guy and maneuvered her in close to stop the Tacoma from running aground. Was listening to the whole debacle while stuck in the locks trying to head that way myself. The real credit goes to the capt of the sealth.[/QUOTE]

I thought the TACOMA was able to get the hook down?

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UH OH!..Spagellios!

[B]Ferry out for the long haul[/B]

Kitsap Sun staff
Jul 30, 2014

SEATTLE — The ferry Tacoma, which went dead in the water Tuesday afternoon en route from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, won’t be returning anytime soon.

Washington State Ferries officials said Wednesday that they hope to know what went wrong sometime next week. Then there’s still the matter of fixing it.

Engineers at Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility are looking at the switchboard that controls the ship’s propulsion. They must disconnect all of the electrical components in the engine control room before investigators can diagnose why the Tacoma lost power.

The Tacoma is among three Jumbo Mark II-class boats. Carrying 202 cars and 2,500 passengers, they’re the biggest in the system. They’re also relatively new. The Tacoma was built in 1997.

The Tacoma normally is paired with sister ship Wenatchee on the Bainbridge-Seattle route. The Wenatchee was towed after the commute Monday evening to a Vancouver, British Columbia, dry dock, where it is having a stern tube replaced. The good news is it’s expected back sooner than Sunday or Monday, as originally expected, said interim director George Capacci.

Repairs will be made Thursday, the boat will be refloated and depart on the high tide at about 9 p.m., he said. It’ll go through customs in Anacortes and join the Kingston-Edmonds route Friday afternoon.

Kingston-Edmonds operated Wednesday with the 188-car Spokane, forcing drivers had to wait 2 ½ hours to board. That won’t continue Thursday. Until the Wenatchee can get there, the 124-car Chelan will be moved down from the Anacortes-Sidney, British Columbia, route. If all goes according to plan, international service will resume over the weekend.

“That’s the best I can do,” Capacci said. “It’s a challenge when you have the two largest vehicle ferries out.”

What did I say about catastrophic main switchboard failure? Gotta say that I bet they already know the switchboard is toast but are burying the news to keep from getting a major black eye. Building and installing a new board will take six months at least!

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WSF has got to stop hiring squirrels to do switchboard maintenance

//youtu.be/GJUKOFPd9cc

I know they have to cut costs and rodents work for peanuts but look where this got them?

anyway, love that catchy toon…who remembers where it is from? You have to be at least 50 to know.

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They got an emergency anchor down but from what it sounded like it was only rope attached to it and was about to break from what I could hear on the VHF. Sounds like they really have no clue what happened to her as of today from a buddy I have that works the ferries. But most likely electrical.

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oh, that’s just dandy. no wind, out in open water and they are at risk of breaking their anchor rode…A BUNCH OF BANANAS!

Sounds like they really have no clue what happened to her as of today from a buddy I have that works the ferries. But most likely electrical.

I think they do have a very good idea of what happened…lots of melted copper inside there to see

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[QUOTE=rshrew;141695]Sounds like they really have no clue what happened to her as of today from a buddy I have that works the ferries. But most likely electrical.[/QUOTE]

I’m wondering if some sea water got in the main switch board somehow or if there was a large switching transient, maybe from turning off too many motors at once without effective snubbers. Keep us informed when your buddy lets you in on what actually happened.

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seriously, if you have multiple generators and propulsion motors, other than a major catastrophic event in the switchboard (seawater, squirrels, Smeagol?) how can a DE vessel go black and power not be able to be restored? And no, you don’t get to say all gens or all motors fried simultaneously.

[B]Man Dies Imitating Gollum[/B]

A friend of Brighton, UK resident Julian Brooker recently told an inquest that the man died because he was was imitating Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Brooker went to the London Road station at 4am on Oct. 23, 2004 to play “The Gollum Game.”

Eva Natasha recalls, “He touched a rail and pretended to be electrocuted. I didn’t find it funny, but assumed he knew what he was doing. Then he touched the live rail once. He wouldn’t have touched it if he had known it was live.”

The rail that Brooker touched had 750 volts of electricity. His friends called 999 but he was already dead on the scene when help arrived. The coroner says Brooker was obsessed with the number 23 and drank on the 23rd of every month.

anyone shed some “illumination” on this?