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SAFETY AT SEA the Estonia, which occurred in very bad weather. Installing flood prevention doors is obviously a road many of the regulatory bodies may go down, and some designs have already been offered to ferry owners. However, until it is proven that such com- partmentalizing methods are ben- eficial to the integrity of the vessel, there is very little chance of the majority of ferry operators fitting such equipment until it becomes law, which could take a number of years. The cost of installing either spon- sons or flood prevention doors would be fairly minuscule compared with the outlay for a newbuilding. Ei- ther option, at retrofit stage, would be in the region of $600,000. It is difficult to speculate on the cost at newbuilding stage but it is expected to be above $1 million for either system. Meanwhile, some ferry operators are looking at this type of equipment as an answer to the problem of flood- ing on the car deck. Immediately after the Herald di- saster, Belgium operator RMT in- stalled two hinged doors onboard its newbuilding Prins Filip, which now operates on the Cross Channel ser- vice between Belgium and Dover, and th eSpirit ofTasmaniahad simi- lar equipment installed during a re- fit prior entering service on the Aus- tralia/Tasmania service in the early 1990s. The latest ferry operator to look at this method of reducing flooding on the car decks is Effjohn Interna- tional, owners and operators of the Silja Europa (see related story, next page), which runs between Stockholm (Sweden) and Turku (Fin- land). Flood prevention doors of the Kvaerner Ship's Equipment (KSE) design from Gothenburg (Sweden) are to be installed on this vessel as part of a trial period for the owner to ascertain the effectiveness of the system. Only one door will be in- stalled initially, another three doors are required to make the system fully operational. Also involved in this trial are the Nordic Maritime Authorities, which, if the system is accepted and there- fore becomes mandatory, might re- quire a possible 50 Baltic ferries to have such systems. Apart from KSE, other ships' equipment companies such as the MacGregor Group have designed similar systems. While the various regulatory bodies throughout the world continue to grapple with the problems of RoRo safety, the main operators throughout northern Eu- rope and the Mediterranean have made little changes to the design of their vessels. It is inevitable that no design changes will be made, apart from those mentioned above, until it becomes law to do so. Despite the maritime industries having a reputation of taking a great deal of time to alter or append exist- ing safety rules, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) moved uncharacteristically quickly following the Estonia disaster by committing a panel of marine ex- perts as early as October — a mere month after the disaster — to rec- ommend changes. This panel is still sitting, an ini- tial report into safety standards onboard RoRo ferries due during the first half of this year, when IMO's Marine Safety Committee meets in May. Meanwhile, the In- ternational Association of Classifi- cation Societies (IACS) has an- nounced that it will wait for the outcome of the IMO panel before making any rule changes to exist- ing ferries or newbuildings. In Malaysia, contact exclusive distributor Perpro Agencies Sdn. 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