Author Topic: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...  (Read 67139 times)

Offline Robert McDonald

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #15 on: January 18, 2012, 04:58:24 AM »
At the risk of "pontificating" about this subject, I would wager the vessel will be declared a constructive loss. The vessel has a major problem being twisted as she rolled. Can one only imagine what havoc such a deformation has taken within the structure - door frames, cabinets, plumbing, a/c? Further exasperated by the huge interior "shopping mall."

Carnival Corporation faces millions of dollars in losses, and perhaps years of litigation over damage claims and loss of life.  Carnival has speculated they face US$40M in insurance deductibles, and as much as US$95M in revenue loss, even if it can be repaired.

The Costa Concordia was built by Fincantieri in 2006 at a cost of over $500 million. So I would speculate Carnival's  Loss Control will survey the vessel, call in the "experts," pencil out the math and make a "fix" or "scrap" decision, based on the the book value of the ship.

It appears that Dutch Smit and Salvage is doing the salvage. Smit is the household word in "salvage," and apparently have equipment in place already to keep track of the ship's movement, ready to begin removing fuel oil as soon as Wednesday Jan 18.

The Concordia is nearly twice the size of the Titanic, and salvage operations will be fascinating to follow. See also the Cougar Ace: http://www.oil-electric.com/search/label/Cougar%20Ace

And this will be a true test of the notion of "Assumption of Risk" passengers sign, most likely without reading or understanding it.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2012, 05:45:50 AM by Robert McDonald »

Offline GFDpeterbilt

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #16 on: January 19, 2012, 10:31:36 PM »
I'll take a chance and say she will be refloated in one piece. I don't know if they will repair her..
Its a big vessel yes, but so are ULCC's, and cape size bulk carriers and they have been salvaged from much worse situations. Depends on the ability to isolate the breached compartments. It looks big, but size is not always the critical factor.Smit, Svitzer, Titan, etc, have all pulled off jobs that would equal this size vessel...It will be very interesting to watch no matter what method that is chosen to remove the vessel. But I beleve it will come off in one piece.

Offline Glenn Towler

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #17 on: January 20, 2012, 11:24:54 AM »
Whether they refloat her or cut her up there it ain't going to be an easy job.  I hope Nat Geo make an episode of their Salvage Code Red program on it.

Does any body know, is she an identical sister ship to the Costa Serna?

Glenn
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Offline Jackdusty

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #18 on: January 21, 2012, 09:14:32 PM »
One stability question... why did ship come to roll and rest on starboard side when water entered portside? Reason for asking was over 40 years ago since I studied the subject of stability.

Thanks

Jackdusty
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Offline Trucker001

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2012, 09:26:14 PM »
  a lot of the thing salvors will consider if sahe is worth saving is will depend on the engine rooms   this is a factor of most all salvage  vessels if the rngine rooms arent flooded they will just write off the vessels 
:lol:  :-D  :-D

Offline Tuomas Romu

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #20 on: January 21, 2012, 09:38:40 PM »
I don't think flooding alone will ruin the engines. When Finn-Baltic capsized in 1990, it took a bit over month to righten the integrated tug and barge, and tow it to shipyard for repairs. As far as I know, the ship is still sailing with the original engines. Of course there must be a deadline, especially in the more saline water of the Mediterranean Sea, after which the engines can be considered scrap due to corrosion etc.

One stability question... why did ship come to roll and rest on starboard side when water entered portside? Reason for asking was over 40 years ago since I studied the subject of stability.

I would assume free surface effect (sloshing) in the flooded compartments during a hard turn to port. After the water had flowed to the starboard side - there should be no watertight transverse bulkheads in the middle - the ship would not righten itself and due to progressive flooding settled to the bottom with the damaged port side above the water.

Offline Jackdusty

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #21 on: January 21, 2012, 10:20:15 PM »
Thank you for explanation.   :)

Regards
Jackdusty
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Offline holedrille

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #22 on: January 22, 2012, 09:47:39 AM »
But, Romu, she didn't at any time turn to port.
Videos taken from shore early in the night show her listing only say 20 degrees to starboard after grounding.
That leaves to mystery still unresolved, at least to me!
Holedriller

Offline Bart Hakze

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #23 on: January 22, 2012, 10:42:27 AM »
From what I have seen & read she initially was listing to port but when she was drifted against the coast (hitting the rocks with her underwatership first) the momentum swung her over to starboard. Also taking in the fact that hitting those rocks with her starboard side will undoubtedly have caused damage below the waterline makes it more easy to uderstand why she capsised over starboard.

Maybe they also did some emergency ballasting but I can't be sure of that.

Have to wait for the final report on the accident for answers to a lot of questions.

Although I do recommend haveing a look at www.gcaptain.com, they have some clear posts about the disaster already. Also an explanation of the preceeding actions of the Costa Concordia.
This one explains a lot:
http://gcaptain.com/gcaptains-john-konrad-narrates-the-final-maneuvers-of-the-costa-concordia-video/?37941
the 3 fatal mistakes:
http://gcaptain.com/costa-concordia-3-fatal-flaws-that-led-to-disaster/?37976
and what the captain did right:
http://gcaptain.com/in-defense-of-captain-schettino-the-lives-he-did-save/?37994
aka SeaBart

Offline Tuomas Romu

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #24 on: January 22, 2012, 10:49:39 AM »
Good point. I haven't been following the news lately, so I didn't know that the ship actually turned to starboard instead of port when it returned to Giglio:



Was the ship listing to starboard before it arrived to its final resting place? If not, then the capsizing to starboard side upon beaching could be attributed to the fact that the starboard side hit the bottom firs and acted as a pivot point while the water sloshed to the starboard side and stayed there in addition to the water coming from additional damage caused by intentional grounding, but if not... well, then it's a bit more complicated. If the compartment was already flooded to waterline, the location of the damage would not necessarily matter as the flooded compartment was quite likely symmetric. Perhaps there was some progressive flooding on the starboard side of the ship?

On a side note, could they have used the fin stabilizer to keep the ship upright while it was approaching the shore?

Offline Bart Hakze

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #25 on: January 22, 2012, 11:41:08 AM »
No, stabiliser fins use the speed of the vessel through the water, they work like wings on a airplane.
The Costa Concordia didn't have any propulsion anymore so no speed through the water.

The slow speed she did make was due to drifting and was sideways as well.
aka SeaBart

Offline Tuomas Romu

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #26 on: January 22, 2012, 11:44:35 AM »
No, stabiliser fins use the speed of the vessel through the water, they work like wings on a airplane. The Costa Concordia didn't have any propulsion anymore so no speed through the water.

The slow speed she did make was due to drifting and was sideways as well.

I know how they work, and I didn't know until a while ago (watched an AIS reconstruction video) that the Costa Concordia was not intentionally grounded, but merely drifted to the rocks.

Offline Bart Hakze

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #27 on: January 22, 2012, 11:50:39 AM »
The grounding was unintentional but assisted by using the bowthruster, as far as I've heard.

I don't know & it's hard to tell whether the grounding was a blessing or a curse. I think she would have stayed upright loner if they had kept her afloat.
There would possibly have been more time to evacuate the passengers safely.
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Offline huecity

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #28 on: January 22, 2012, 11:59:02 AM »
 i read that SMIT are planning on useing "hot tapping" technology to remove the fuel, oils etc from costa concordia--please can someone advice details of "hot tapping" technology

Offline Tuomas Romu

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Re: Costa Concordia - wreck removal or salvage for repairs and relaunch ?...
« Reply #29 on: January 22, 2012, 12:28:06 PM »
i read that SMIT are planning on useing "hot tapping" technology to remove the fuel, oils etc from costa concordia--please can someone advice details of "hot tapping" technology

Basically they attach a flange with a valve to the side of the tank and drill through it. As the drill is pulled out, the valve is closed and a pump is attached to the flange. Once this is done, the fuel oil is heated and pumped out.

I guess having the fuel oil in a more or less solid state helps with the hot tapping, as there is less danger that it'll come out during the drilling.

 

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