Quote Originally Posted by HKGuns View Post
Curious why a ship that large wouldn't have tugs assisting with maneuvering? Is that not a thing for these large cargo vessels? YTB types.....
This is a yes and no question. First and foremost, there needs to be tug availability and the use of tugs comes at a financial cost to the shipping companies. If they don't NEED assist tug(s) they certainly don't want to pay for it. It is common to "wrap a vessel in tugs" for many reasons in pilotage waters though; some of those being if the ship is deep laden, if the weatheris bad (high winds or currents) or there is a known mechanical issue before hand. Pilot groups or port authorities will usually have a set of parameters (vessel size, draft, wind speed etc) that makes the use of tugs past a certain point compulsory. A channel would normally be shut down to all other traffic until a ship with a known mechanical issue is cleared. This issue was obviously unknown so not discussed and no need for assist tugs.

The waterway appeared to be pretty clear of traffic that night and the vessel had plenty of room in the channel by both width and depth of the channel, as well as good weather. A standard calculation for ship beam to channel width is 51%. Meaning a ship will have enough room to maneuver in a channel so long as its beam is 51% or less of the channel width. The Dhali has a beam of 48m, (158'). So, as long as the channel is at least 315' wide, which I believe it is much more than that, then tug assist the whole way out is really unnecessary. Nothing that I saw warranted the use of tugs other than the standard use just to get the ship off the dock, once at a safe distance and in a good position it gets turned or spun around if needed with the tug assist and then the tugs are let go and the ship carries on under its own power and steering. Also, the transit speed of 8.5 knots was about perfect for maneuverability and safety. The ship could probably make 12 or 14 knots if on full ahead, and over 17 knots if at sea speed, but dead slow ahead she would probably only make 3 knots and hard to steer.
8.5kts was a good safe sweet spot IMO.