Jumbo Shipping’s latest newbuild, HLV Jumbo Jubilee, completed its maiden voyage after successfully loading, transporting and installing two 1250 t shiploaders for FL Smidth in challenging circumstances.
The Jumbo Jubilee started her first voyage from her home port Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She set sail for Vitória, Brazil, where two shiploaders were waiting, each with a processing capacity of 16,000 t iron ore per hour. With ample clearance between crane jib and cargo and enough lifting height to clear the conveyor belt at the centre of the pier, the loading operation was relatively easy. It was at Tubarão, where offloading and installation were due, that the real work started.
The port of Tubarão is half open to the sea and is continuously subjected to swell. As conditions vary between 0.20 m and 1.10 m swell, ship and cargo can easily become the victim of roll or swing, a real challenge when handling a 1250 t piece of equipment.
Jumbo’s Engineering Dept. countered this challenge by analyzing and checking swell statistics of the last ten years and using detailed weather forecasts and computer analysis to predict the vessels’ behavior. Thus, a window of opportunity was identified consisting of manageable wave heights and periods. When a window was chosen, the vessel was ballasted to an optimum level of stability, resulting in minimum pitch and roll in the given conditions. To leave nothing to coincidence a Motion Reference Unit (MRU) was used to register actual ship movements.