Autoanchor
Product testing
A Moormaster 400 system at the Port of Melbourne (Click to enlarge)
In June 2005, MSL installed a MoorMaster 800 system on Dover Harbour Board's newly constructed number 8 berth. The Port of Dover is the busiest ferry port in Northern Europe and Berth 8 is used by a number of RoPax ferries of up to 200m length overall. Conditions at the port can be boisterous, with winds reaching 60 knots and 1 metre swell heights at the berth. Each of the units has a design capacity of 80 tonnes and can range up and down the quay face and cope with tidal variations of up to 10 metres and surging conditions causing vertical, fore and aft movement of up to 1 metre per second, equivalent to about 100 tonnes surge (sideways) power.
In September 2005 two MoorMaster 400 units were installed on a container berth at the Omani Port of Salalah for a six week trial. The deepwater port is situated on the Indian Ocean and is subject to monsoon winds from June through August. During the Khareef (monsoon) season berth productivity is reduced by the swell-induced motions of the ships loading and discharging at the terminal.
Specifically, the trial was conducted to measure the ability of MoorMaster system to reduce the motions of the extra large container ships (up to 347m LOA and 98,000 tonnes displacement) using the port. Particular attention was paid to the motions brought about by infragravity waves. Infragravity waves are a special class of waves formed when groups of swell waves coalesce. The waves travel 100s of kilometres or are generated by low pressure systems. The period of infragravity waves - the time it takes one full wave to pass a given point - is extraordinary long, much longer than those of big ocean swells, but shorter than the tides themselves. Sometimes described as “mini tides’ and very difficult to detect; infragravity waves are capable of moving the largest of vessels and breaking mooring lines.
The trial at Salalah conclusively proved that MSL's systems could tame swell-induced motions in conditions where sophisticated self-tensioning winches or conventional mooring lines performed poorly.
