Draught Surveying & the

use of Technology

Presented by
Louis Koutelas
Hunter Marine Surveyors
 Overview

Who is the draft surveyor

What is a draft survey
The changing role of the surveyor
The use of portable computing
 Draught Surveying
Who is the draught surveyor

Qualifications and Experience

Generally seagoing background
Wide variety of vessels

Having carried a variety of bulk cargoes

Alumina, Grain, Salt, Sugar, Dolomite, Iron Ore, Coal
 Draught Surveying
How does a draught survey work?

Archimedes Principle states that ;

The weight of water displaced by a floating

body is equal to the weight of the body.
 Principle of a draught survey
Science experiment done by Xavier
 Principle of a draught survey
Imagine a block shaped ship
10m x 1m x 1m (depth)
3
i.e. 10m of fresh water displaced
Therefore the object weighs 10 tonnes

Depth

Length
 Principle of a draught survey
The box shaped ship loads some cargo
The new depth is now 1.5 m
Therefore the object now weighs 15 tonnes
Cargo loaded is 5 tonnes

Depth

Length
 Principle of a draught survey
A real ship is not quite box shaped
Hydrostatic tables
There are other weights to be accounted for;
Ballast water
Fresh water
Bunkers
Reading the draft accurately
Water level tubes
Wave dampening devices
Ships float in water that is variable in density
Principle of a draught survey
 Principle of a draught survey
The density of the harbour varies:
During periods of heavy rain, the density of the harbour
reaches a value of 1.000: fresh water
We must check the density at various depths and positions
to obtain a weighted average
 Calculation of a draught survey
Back in the Good old Days
After cargo finishes the Chief Officer would go out
for a leisurely stroll to read the drafts
Cupper time before sitting down to sharpen a pencil
Calculator and scrap paper ready
Scribbles, erasing and tapping on the calculator until
the final answer
Ooops made a mistake looking up the MTC from the
hydrostatic tables
45 minutes later we have an answer.
 Calculation of a draught survey
2001
PWCS data for number of trimming pours used
for a sample of 90 vessels

Trim Pours Ships % 53.2%

1 2 2.2 required
2 40 44.4 more
3 24 26.6 than 2
4 20 22.2
5 4 4.4 pours

Average trimming survey time was around 38

minutes with some taking over 1 hours.
 Calculation of a draught survey
Doing the calculation by hand is
Slow and delays cargo operations
Prone to errors particularly at 0200 hrs
Using a laptop
Quicker but requires going back to the office
Some offices are on the bridge
Using a handheld
Even quicker again and provides instant results
Much faster error checking
Fast and accurate surveys increase the efficiency
of vessels cargo operations.
 Calculation of a draft survey
These days the terminal requires that the trimming
survey is done in 20 mins or less and in only 2 pours.
Using handheld devices the survey time is limited by
how quickly you can read the drafts.
Our average for the trimming survey is 17 mins
This is a saving of 21 mins per vessel from the
averages of a decade ago.
Newcastle loads around 1400 coal vessels annually
This saving of time results in an extra 20 days or 3
million tonnes loaded.
Provides more certainty for vessel movements.
Calculation of a draught survey
Hand held computers come in many forms
Windows
Clamshell
Slate / Tablet
Windows phone
Android
Android tablet
Android phone
Apple
iPad
iPhone
 Reporting
Clients want their reports yesterday
Using computers for calculation and transposing
data to a report form cuts down on reporting
errors
Makes report generation almost instantaneous
Using VBA in Microsoft Office to customize reports
Using mobile broadband means that the client can
have the report as soon as the vessel is complete
USB dongles or WiFi hotspots on your phone
 Bulk Terminals
Bulk export tonnage is increasing
Time is money
All delays are accounted for to the nearest minute
Poor performance notices are issued
Poor performers are not accepted in future
Only using good performers increases port throughput
Places more pressure on every facet of vessel
operations
Load plans number of pours
Surveys Initial, Trimming & Final
De-ballasting Stripping
 The modern surveyor
Reviews load plans during initial survey
Advises on relevant variables used in the plan
Stowage factors
Dock water density
Tidal departure criteria
Cargo criteria (Max / Mins)
Recent terminal belt error information
De-ballast issues
Trimming pours
How to complete the loading to the highest level of
efficiency
 Ended up loading
Planned to sail to her marks and
with ballast in deballasted
APT & No5 completely
DBTs. loading an extra
1455 tonnes
 Cargo Distribution
Poor distribution results in sag
Sag is a bending of the vessel in the middle
Midship drafts are greater than the mean of fore & aft
This means they reach the limiting draft earlier
A 10 cm sag as per the previous plan is a loss of 258 tonnes
Historical Deflection Analysis can be used to optimise
distribution and minimise sag.
Techniques like HDA help gain tonnage by simply
working / planning smarter.
 De-Ballasting
Traditionally vessels stop loading to de-ballast if the
load rate is too high
Is it necessary to strip all tanks completely ?
Loading to summer draft
Do not stop for de-ballasting
Take less cargo
Not loading to summer draft
Take booked tonnage
Strip tanks enroute
 Summation
Terminal pressure to minimise delays means that;
Draught Surveys must be conducted quickly and
accurately
Trimming survey is conducted as quickly as possible
Use of hand held computers help achieve both
Load Plans must be optimised such that they result in a
good vessel loading performance (high load rate)
The latter stages of a loading is monitored and assistance
given by the marine surveyor
Speed of reporting and sending from the vessel
Automated reporting from the field results in happy clients
The Modern Surveyor doesnt loose sight of what
happens when she sails