Marine Wiki Forum

The draft of the Kerala IV Rules 2010 came out in 28th Jan, 2010. It is not surprising that not many people in the industry was not given the copy of the document for feedback as the need of the day is to get some rules in place and subsequently make amendments to refine it.

Download the latest rules and add share your valuable thoughts and comments in this forum.

http://www.kerala.gov.in/downloads/csind.pdf

I have already sought opinion about the stability criteria (there are none here) separately in the other forum on stability.

Some of the comments:

1) Chapter VI: LIFES SAVING APPLIANCES TO BE CARRIED ONBOARD INLAND VESSELS

104.2(e). Every vessel of Class I, passenger capacity 150 and above shall have at least one life boat with minimum passenger capacity of ten persons. The boat shall be provided with necessary davit for launching. Boats are to be stowed equally on either side of the vessel if more than one boats are provided;

It is really stupid to have requirement for life boat for inland vessel of kerala where the nearest water in the largest lake is under a couple of kilometers. These are more appropriate for sea rather than inland waters,where life rafts are more than appropriate. Moreover life boats are complicated to operate, maintain and also have higher cost associated with it.


2) Chapter VII: INLAND VESSEL FIRE FIGHTING EQUIPMENTS
109.(1). Vessels above 500 tons gross or passenger capacity over 100 numbers. These vessels are to comply with the requirements of Merchant Shipping (Fire Alliance) Rules 1969 as applicable to ships on coastal voyages.

This is a display of lack of understanding of the requirements of the various rules. How can one compare sea going requirements (read Merchant Shipping Rules) with that of Inland Vessels. The MS Rules are very strict and stringent because the vessel is out in deep sea and not in lakes or rivers in the case of inland vessels, and in Kerala inland waters it is all the more stupid as vessels are easily accessible.

This rules proposed is way too stringent even compare to IRS requirements which are clearly outlined. Even if River-Sea Rules are chosen which are for vessels that can go upto 12 Nm in the sea, the rules are less stringent than our Kerala IV rules requirements!

I am sure no ship owner will accept such a ridiculous rule which was made without any logical basis or understanding of the requirements.


3) Chapter VIII: INLAND VESSELS CONSTRUCTION
Part I : HULL CONSTRUCTION
Part II: MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT

The rules are not complete and these are just broad statements. There is no mention of any guidelines or rules that will have to be in place if someone needs to build a vessel other than the ones as per Classification Society rules.


3) Part IV: STABILITY
135.(1) An inclining experiment shall be carried out to determine the elements of stability resulting in a Trim and Stability booklet. Unless particulars of the position to transverse metacenter at various drafts are available the experiment shall be carried out with the vessel loaded with weights to represent the fully laden condition.

Here it mentions that inclining experiment to be done and Trim and Stability booklet to be made. However there is no criteria based on which this is to be made. The previous draft rule had atleat an Initial GM criteria (still not enough). This one has neither this condition nor any commitment that the criteria will be provided by the authority by some technical committe or something.

Also the second sentence shows that the person has no idea why the inclining experiment is done in the first place.

135.(2). Calculation showing the transverse metacnetric height and the angle of heel which would occur with total of the passengers concentrated on one side of the vessel to be undertaken. In a multideck vessel the total passengers concentration should be on one side of the upper most deck. Each passenger shall be represented by a weight of 65 kgs.

Here it says that heel due to passenger crowding is to be calculated. However, there is no mention on the permitted angle of heel. Is it 10 degress or 12 or 20 or what?

Please do add your thoughts and comments to these as well as any other rules.

Hi all
Right now i am doing the stability calculations of wooden house boat (category A) and i am confused how to go forward as it has not mentioned here whats the stability criteria ??
GM is the criteria or GZ ?
And it has not mentioned what criteria to follow under different loading conditions.???

Aryan

The news clipping of the arrival of the Rules. Interestingly the rules are still incomplete; yet something is better than nothing.