The critical events in the Bourbon Dolphin accident are identified with the help of reviewing the official report of Bourbon dolphin accident (2008) and experts opinions. These are initial heel angle and drift of vessel.
3.6.1. Root causes in vessel capsizing
The stability of an AHV during anchor deployment or recovery is a complex subject. The stability is primarily dependent on vessel’s design, environmental conditions and forces acting on it. Unfortunately, no consistent method has been developed yet due to the complexity of dynamic forces involved in capsizing scenarios. The causes related to the capsizing scenarios are listed below:
• Critical stability;
• Force of due to heavy sea and …show more content…
Vessel’s drifting has been considered as a major influencing parameter for the Bourbon Dolphin accident. Vessel characteristics like vessel’s behaviour in the horizontal plane and operational aspects like basic anchor handling skills have a significant influence on vessel position and bearing. Figure 3.28 shows the possible scenarios related to vessel drifting. The drifting scenarios occur either in powered or in disabled …show more content…
Lack of situation awareness or carelessness can be a reason for delayed order which can be reduced by improving operator’s knowledge with the help of training. The limitations in the system behaviour are reasons behind delayed response which can be overcome by improving the capacity of associated ship handling equipment.
Failure associated with ship handling equipment
Due to this the vessel does not have enough ship handling capacity to control the vessel position and vessel heading. This can be avoided by either minimizing common cause failures or improving the redundancy level associated with ship handling equipment.
3.6.3. Vessel initial heel angle
Larger initial heel angle is one of the reasons behind Bourbon Dolphin capsize. Over the last couple of years there have been a number of discussions about the mechanics of vessel’s stability and capsize scenarios. Recently, regarding structures and stability, Sano et al. (2012) have stated the requirements of classification society and regulatory bodies for anchor handling vessels. The requirements mainly include for:
• Side structure and work deck