More Competitive Ships
New GL Guidelines for the Analysis of
Alternative Ship Design and Arrangements
Hamburg / Germany, 15 July 2009 - Germanischer Lloyd's new Guidelines for the Analysis of Alternative Ship Design and Arrangements (V-2-1) come into force in mid-July. Alternative ship design and arrangements are solutions which deviate from the prescriptive requirements of SOLAS regulations. Nevertheless they are suitable to satisfy the intent of the respective regulations.
Alternative designs and arrangements include a wide range of measures, such as alternative shipboard structures and systems based on novel or unique designs, as well as traditional shipboard structures and systems that are installed in alternative arrangements or configurations. Alternative design and arrangements as specified in SOLAS can be focused on particular systems, subsystems or individual components, or can extend to the whole concept of the ship.
Hence, alternative ship designs offer shipyards the opportunity to create more competitive ship designs, such as the introduction of additional features and new design ideas that in the past could not have been implemented. Such designs and arrangements may be accepted, if by means of risk assessment it can be demonstrated that a novel design offers an equivalent level of safety as the requirements of existing SOLAS regulations.
The process for analysing safety equivalency for alternative designs and arrangements is outlined in the IMO circulars MSC/Circ. 1002 and MSC.1/Circ. 1212. This process typically is based on a holistic risk assessment, which to date has not been widely used in the maritime industry. Hence, GL decided to share its experiences from consultancies in various alternative design projects by providing these guidelines to owners, yards and designers.
The GL guidelines for the Analysis of Alternative Design and Arrangements contain recommendations and requirements for the application of the process of alternative design and arrangements.
The objectives of these guidelines are:
• to provide an overview on the objectives and working tasks of the alternative design process,
• to provide recommendations on the implementation of the alternative design process and
• to make it possible for our customers to apply the alternative design process efficiently in order to take advantage of the new design opportunities that are offered.
For the purpose of usability, in order to avoid having to work with a set of documents in parallel, the GL Guidelines for the Analysis of Alternative Design and Arrangements contain the full text of IMO circulars, which is enriched by comprehensive recommendations for the practical implementation of the individual steps of the alternative design process; hence providing a direct link between IMO recommendations and GL experience.
About Germanischer Lloyd
Germanischer Lloyd (GL) is a ship classification society and an international technical assurance and consulting company for the energy sector. The company employs more than 6,100 engineers, surveyors and experts in 80 countries. The global network consists of more than 200 locations around the globe.
GL is dedicated to ensuring the safety of life and property at sea, and the prevention of pollution of the marine environment. As an independent third party, GL is developing state of the art rules, procedures and guidance for ship owner, ship yards and the maritime supply industry in order to offer relevant answers in times of economic challenges and tight regulatory regimes. GL classes container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, multipurpose vessels, high-speed ferries and cruise ships as well as superyachts and sport boats. GL's fleet in service amounts to 80 million gross tons. More than 6,870 ships are currently surveyed on a regular basis by GL.
Apart from classification GL is an international technical assurance and consulting company for the worldwide energy industries. GL provides assurance, inspection, and consulting as well as project management on a worldwide scale. The focus of its worldwide services are along the entire life cycle oil and gas - upstream, midstream, and downstream, renewables and energy installations onshore and offshore. This includes safety, integrity, reliability and performance management.
GL's, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, has a dedicated growth strategy, both organically and by acquisition. In April 2009, Noble Denton, a premier provider of life cycle marine and offshore engineering services, has joined GL and reinforced its offshore expertise.
Germanischer Lloyd press release