Important ships plans and drawings required to carry in a dry cargo ship and their management

Written by AdminSailor Thursday, 11 July 2013 15:04 - Last Updated Saturday, 13 July 2013 16:45

If the ships officers are to deal efficiently with the problems that they are likely to encounter during her lifetime and particularly as she becomes older.

As a good practice there should be two sets of such documents, one set kept intact with the master and chief and chief engineer keeping a working set.

It is know a requirement for as-built drawings to kept up-to-date and retained on board with copies kept by owner ashore.

For efficient use the plans are best stored in an indexed filing system and folded as originally supplied, with their titles visible. It is useful to maintain a book in which the removal and return of plans is recorded to assist in the tracing of missing plans. Plans should be checked quarterly against the index and missing plans located or renewed.

Occasionally the vertical scale of a plan is different from the horizontal scale: this is important to remember especially if the measurements are required to be taken from a plan. A triangular scale rule which can be used to read dimensions at six different common plan scales is a useful item of equipment.

Framed copies of some of the most important plans are likely to be displayed in accommodation, in offices and control rooms. They are likely to fade and become unreadable over a period of years and should be replaced when it happens.

Copies of plans can often be supplied for price by the builders, even many years after the ship was built.

There are hundreds of plans and drawings one may find in the ship, but the most important ones are detailed below:

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Important ships plans and drawings required to carry in a dry cargo ship and their management
Written by AdminSailor Thursday, 11 July 2013 15:04 - Last Updated Saturday, 13 July 2013 16:45

1. General Arrangement Plan: The GA plan quotes the ships main dimensions and class notations. Generally, in this plan the entire ship is shown in elevation and two transverse cross-section are provided (one in midships and the other in a way of a transverse bulkheads).The GA plan shows and names all the ships main features and provide some principal dimensions. It is a plan which provides a quick general appreciation of the ship including layout of the bridge, the accommodation, store rooms and machinery spaces. It shows the location of holds, tanks, storerooms, cabins, main items of machinery and equipment, and the position and heights of masts, antennae and radar masts. The GA plan is a useful source of general information about the ship and can be used for measuring distances from one point to another point of ship.

2. Tank and stability Plan: It is a comprehensive source of the practical information needed to plan the loading of cargoes. Following are the features of this plan: - Principal particulars and equipments are listed - Dimensions, capacities and details of bunker and ballast tanks and cargo holds are shown. - Full draught and deadweight scale, with readings for a range of seawater densities and for displacement, moment to change for trim 1 cm (MCTC) and tonnes/cm immersion is shown. - Details as safe working load and maximum operating radius of cranes or derricks can be found. - Loadline and freeboard information in more accurate values can be obtained from Ships stability tables. - Number of elevation and plan views, focusing on structural details and dimensions can be found. - List of hazardous cargo which a ship is certified to carry can be found.

3. Cargo washing and drainage system plan: The plan shows the arrangement of permanent piping in each hold to provide the water and air for the system, and the details of the collecting tanks to contain the used hold washing water. Details of the washing and stripping equipment are given as well.

4. Docking plan: It provides useful information when drydocking the vessel. It provides measurements needed by the drydock personnel to position the blocks and sidebeds (bilgeshore). Apart from that it provides other information as well, such as docking draught and trim, air draught, hull paint areas, weights aboard to achieve docking trim, grades of steel used in specified areas and position of bottom plugs, echo sounder and log , draught sensors.

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Important ships plans and drawings required to carry in a dry cargo ship and their management
Written by AdminSailor Thursday, 11 July 2013 15:04 - Last Updated Saturday, 13 July 2013 16:45

The docking plan is useful alternative to the GA plan and the capacity plan when measurements are required.

5. Midship section: This records ships main dimensions and class notations and her design criteria. The construction details and scantlings are shown at various positions along the vessels length and around her transverse cross-section. The structural details of the duct keel, double bottoms, bilge keel, side tanks, topside tanks, pipe ducts and hatch coamings can be seen as well.

6. Shell expansion plan: These plans are essential for describing the locations of damage to the ships shell and connections to the shell. This plan shows the boundaries of the shell plates and thickness of each plate in millimeters. - Recent bulk carriers built to IACS common structural rules show net scantlings, on which strength calculations are based, as well as gross scantlings which include corrosion addition plus owners addition, when applicable. In other words a minimum and maximum is shown for each plate thickness. - The frames, floors, girders, longitudnals, bilge keels and stringers which make contact with shell plates are also shown. - The locations of other features such as sea chests and anchor pods are also shown. - Frame numbering appears at the bottom and top of the plan, counting forward and aft, from zero at after perpendicular(at the rudder stock) - The limits of each cargo hold are also shown at the top of the plan. - Generally a convention is adopted for naming or numbering the strakes of the platings, with A, B, C etc starboard or port from the midships(where the greatest number of strakes are found) and A being the keel plate.

7. Mooring Arrangement plan : This shows the layout of mooring equipment on the forecastle, main deck and poop deck. The equipment requirements for Class and the ships actual outfit of mooring lines are stated and fairleads, panama chocks, bollards and other mooring furniture are specified.

8. Life-saving equipment: This pan provides an inventory for the ships life-saving equipment and shows where the equipment is located.

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Important ships plans and drawings required to carry in a dry cargo ship and their management
Written by AdminSailor Thursday, 11 July 2013 15:04 - Last Updated Saturday, 13 July 2013 16:45

9. Natural ventilation plan: - This plan despite its name shows all the ships ventilation, both natural and mechanical. - The statutory requirements with which the ventilators comply are listed and fittings such as spark arresting screens are specified. - On ships with more elaborate hold ventilation systems the plan will show the location of hold ventilation cowls, of ventilator trunks and of ventilator flaps for opening or closing the trunks. - If ventilator fans are fitted it will show their positions and capacity. The plan should show number of air changes per hour which can be achieved in each hold, when empty, if fans are running. - This plan is of greatest importance when fire develops in cargo.

10. Ballast/stripping system plan: This plan details the pumping of ballast and bilges of the ship. It details the ballast lines, ballast stripping lines, engine room crossover lines, etc. The plan for ballast/stripping is often useful when difficulties with ballast are met or when an unusual ballasting or deballasting is planned.

11. Fire and safety plan: The plan tabulates all the ships fire and safety equipment, features and fittings and shows where they are to be found. Copies of ships fire and safety plan will be located in number of prominent positions throughout the ship. On a longitudinal profile of the ship, supplemented by plan views of every deck, the position of every item of firefighting equipment will be shown. The plan also list each item of equipment with brief details of sizes and types of hoses, hydrants, fire extinguishers, fire doors, firemens outfits, breathing apparatus, safety lockers, lifebuoys and attachments, lifeboats, liferafts, ladders, emergency lighting, remote machinery stops and so on. Colour coding of these plans makes them easier to read, and the symbols used must be internationally recognized.

12. Fuel oil service plan: This plan illustrates the system linking fuel oil storage tanks to settling, service, drain and sludge tanks and to the ships main and auxiliary machinery.

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Important ships plans and drawings required to carry in a dry cargo ship and their management
Written by AdminSailor Thursday, 11 July 2013 15:04 - Last Updated Saturday, 13 July 2013 16:45

13. Air, sounding and filling pipes plan: This plan shows the position of air and sounding pipes and labels each one of them. The sounding pipes are generally located over the deepest part of the tank and air pipes are located in the highest point of the tank. This plan also shows a list of air, sounding and filling pipes.

14. General arrangement of hatch covers: These plans shows the positions of the vessels hatch covers in plan and elevation and provide detailed drawings of wheels, stoppers, bottom hinges and so on.

15. Sealing plan of Hatch covers: The plan identifies and names the appropriate rubber/neoprene seal for each position on the hatch covers and gives guidance on fitting and fixing them.

16. Fire protection plans: These plans detail the fire protection systems in cargo spaces and are generally separate plans and booklets to describe the system. Typically these systems, which normally protects the machinery spaces and cargo holds are of fixed CO2 smothering type. Typically this pipe-work is also used to extract the air sample from holds to be used in the fire detection system. Full plans of the system should be available and may need to be

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Important ships plans and drawings required to carry in a dry cargo ship and their management
Written by AdminSailor Thursday, 11 July 2013 15:04 - Last Updated Saturday, 13 July 2013 16:45

consulted when damage is being repaired or when the system is being tested. In addition, instructions for operating the system to be used in the event of fire, is also posted in the C02 bottle room and in fire control station.

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