Major safety concerns IN PCC- PURE CAR CARRIERS

PCC Pure car carrier, those vessels specifically designed to carry cars. These vessels have low deck height for the best utilization of cargo space for carriage of maximum cargo

*External

Ramps.

*Connectivity of all cargo compartments. *A large cargo volume with respect to assigned deadweight. *Heavy weather precautions. *A large windage area. *Increasing cargo capacity with increasing height of cargo decks. *No centerline bulkhead in cargo spaces. *Flammable fuel in the cargo.

1.EXTERNAL RAMPS: The vessels are fitted with external ramps. These are the large openings to give access to cargo compartment for the purpose that roll on and off cargo may easily be loaded. Imagine now on a dry bulk carrier we have detailed procedures and precautions to avoid any ingress of water from cargo hatches. Remember now those hatches are horizontal and on weather deck, and in case of Ro-Ro Cargo Carriers ramps are vertical and on the ship side. We leave it to your imagination how many times more careful you should be while operating external ramps for water tightness

2 Connectivity of all cargo compartments: For the accessibility of all the cargo spaces they should be approachable to external ramps through the adjoining cargo spaces. Well, this means, the complete cargo area is exposed to seawater ingress, in the event of flooding of any one part of cargo space. Also the fire may spread to all adjoining cargo spaces as all the cargo space are interconnected, if fire doors are not closed. Vessel is divided into individual fire zones, and these fire zones can be isolated from each other by gas tight doors. But what if the fire breaks out during the cargo operation when the these gas tight doors are open for accessibility of cargo, and now these gas tight doors can not be reached for closing. This is also unlike of other ships where one cargo compartment does not have access from the other compartments.

3, large cargo volume with respect to assigned deadweight. This is also an inherent characteristic of a car carrier. Before understanding what is so important with this characteristic, please go through a vessels particulars of a 2528 unit Ro-Ro Cargo Carriers, which are given hereunder. Lightship = 7383 MT Deadweight = 9358 MT Gross Registered Tonnage = 27013 Length between perpendiculars = 148M Breadth molded = 27.8 M Summer draft = 9.358M Engine Power= 9450 SHP These figures may surprise some of you, who have not been working on this kind of ship. On an average on other cargo vessels light ship is about 25% of summer deadweight and GRT is about 45% of summer deadweight. And in the case of PCC vessels, we have lightship almost equal to deadweight and GRT is 3 times the deadweight. So this is clear these vessels that these vessels have low deadweight assigned to their lightship. We can also say that they have low volume below the summer draft. In other words they have

low under water volumes even in loaded conditions, if WE COMPARE them with other vessels. Again the engines are powerful and to provide to the propeller adequate propeller immersion the loaded and ballast draft is also sufficient. To make the sufficient propeller immersion with low under water volumes, the vessels lines are very fine below the water. Also their GRT is comparatively very high, if we compare with the deadweight. Now GRT is the vessels volumetric function. This implies the vessel have huge cargo space volumes. We also know that these vessels have low under water volumes. So where is this huge cargo volumes located? It is all located above the summer draft marks. Again it is different from other cargo vessel, where maximum cargo volume is below the summer draft. This makes these vessels low in metacentric height and delicate in stability. 4. Heavy weather precautions.

On the Ro-Ro Cargo Carriers the heavy weather precautions are very important because of the two main reasons:
Presence of external ramp on the shipside. Low under water volume of the vessel as compared to the vessels volume above the water level.

Check the following after departure and during the heavy weather:
Check the period of roll and ensure the vessels GM (fluid) is as planned for the voyage and is safe. Take rounds once a watch and ensure all cargo lashing is intact. All the lashing on deck, in accommodation, in engine room, stores and in galley is intact. All external openings from the cargo decks are secured. Ensure all the items mentioned in the first paragraph regarding the checks before departure are still valid. 5 Large windage area

As we have understood, that these vessel have low sinkage and with large cargo capacity above the load line cargo capacity. This in turn results into a large windage area. A large windage area makes these vessels, difficult to handle them in light breeze also, particularly when the engines are not running. These vessels behave like kites. Details of calculations and effect of wind on these

6.Increasing cargo capacity with increasing height of cargo deck In general higher the height of the cargo decks from keel higher the cargo capacity. Now you, check the vessels stowage plan, see picture No 1 and 2. See lower is the deck lower is the cargo carrying capacity; and higher the deck, higher the cargo carrying capacity. It is just reverse of other type of ships. This also decreases the metacentric height of the vessel. 7. No centre line bulkhead in the cargo spaces These types of vessels are also not fitted with any centerline division in the cargo spaces. The cargo holds width is same as the beam of the vessel. Cargo holds extend from ship side to shipside. Imagine now in the case of flooding of the vessel, a very large Free Surface Effect will be generated. The originally with low metacentric height is bound to loose stability and capsize and some time sink. A very little time is with the ship staff to handle emergency.

Cargo Cost Cargo is expensive cargo. with extreme sensitivity. A few minor scratches on 20 new Mercedes Benz or BMW cars may cause a cargo claim UNIMAGINABLE Needless to say extreme care should be taken of these cars while they are on board.

Flammable fuel in the cargo and fire fighting. Highly flammable gasoline or diesel is always present in the cargo. Also there is flammable upholstery and other items used in the car. This makes the cargo, extremely flammable in nature. During the cargo operation, fire hazards such as jump starting of car , SO CONSIDER THESE POINTS WHILE U WORK IN PCC -------------------------------------COMPILED BY -------------------DRS