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IMCA Publishes its Latest DP Station Keeping Bulletin

Published on 12 December 2018

  • The IMCA DP Station Keeping Bulletin is the 4th this year
  • The Bulletin proves to be invaluable to DP crew

The International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA) has published its latest Dynamic Positioning (DP) Station Keeping Bulletin. Published quarterly, the Bulletin is a reliable channel for providing feedback on DP events to the industry.

The Bulletin, the fourth this year, features reports on the isolation of backup supplies to DP critical equipment; inadequate shallow water lay-up and reactivation procedures; and the use of third-party equipment leading to an undesired DP event. It also includes a timely reminder of a trend in DP station keeping events relating to the incorrect use or selection of position reference systems, and gives examples of resulting incidents and events.

IMCA’s Technical Adviser – Marine, Captain Andy Goldsmith, said: “Key DP personnel have made important contributions to the IMCA DP Station Keeping reporting scheme during 2018. Members and non-members have provided information on DP events in order that others in the industry can learn from their experience.

“We encourage vessel operators, training establishments and other industry bodies to distribute the station keeping bulletins as widely as possible and are delighted to hear that increasingly the bulletins are getting to DP staff on the front line, and that they are proving helpful.”

A recently received comment in an event report proved this point:

‘No loss of position occurred, and the vessel was maintained in automatic DP throughout the event. The redundancy of the remaining thrusters allowed for continued controlled operation of the vessel. DP staff had read through IMCA’s DP station keeping bulletin 03/18 the previous day, which had detailed two incidents where DP staff had prematurely switched from automatic DP to either independent joystick (IJS) or manual control of thrusters following failures with the DP. Discussion had been held on board regarding these incidents and this helped the DP crew to accurately determine that the vessel did not need to be changed over to manual DP/Joystick or manual control in this instance.’

The latest DP Station Keeping Bulletin, along with earlier issues, can be found at legacy.imca-int.com/alerts/dp-event.